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PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 



PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

BY 
MOORFIELD STOREY 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

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1920 



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COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY MOORFIELD STOREY 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



J.^'^o 



OCT -9 1920 



©CLA597701 



PREFATORY NOTE 

In the year 1903 certain friends of Edwin 
L. Godkin, desiring "to express their admira- 
tion and gratitude for his long and disinter- 
ested service to the country of his adoption 
by some suitable memorial, which should per- 
petuate his name and stimulate that spirit of 
independent thought and unselfish devotion 
to the public good which characterized his life 
and distinguished his career" gave to Harvard 
College a fund of which the income should "be 
used in providing for the delivery and publi- 
cation of lectures upon 'The Essentials of Free 
Government and the Duties of the Citizen,' 
or upon some part of that subject, such lec- 
tures to be called 'The Godkin Lectures.'" 

This volume contains the Godkin Lectures 
delivered in March, 1920. 



CONTENTS 

I. The Use of Parties i 

II. Lawlessness 54 

III. Race Prejudice 103 

IV. The Labor Question 149 
V. Our Foreign Relations 203 



PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

THE USE OF PARTIES 

The future of the United States during the next 
half-century sometimes presents itself to the mind 
as a struggle between two forces, the one beneficial, 
the other malign, the one striving to speed the nation 
on to a port of safety before this time of trial arrives, 
the other to retard its progress, so that the tempest 
may be upon it before the port is reached. 

So wrote Lord Bryce ten years ago. The 

time of trial to which he referred is the time 

when all the arable land in this country will 

be occupied, and he continued: 

The question to which one reverts in touching on 
the phenomena of American politics is this. Will the 
progress now discernible towards a wise public 
opinion and a higher standard of public life succeed 
in bringing the mass of the people up to the level 
of what are now the best districts in the country, 
before the days of pressure are at hand? Or will 
the existing evils prove so obstinate and European 
immigration so continue to depress the average of 
intelligence and patriotism among the voters that, 
when the struggle for life grows harder than it now 
is, the masses will yield to the temptation to abuse 



2 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

their power and will seek violent, and because vio- 
lent, probably vain and useless remedies for the 
evils which afflict them? 

When these words were written the wisest 
man could not have foreseen what has hap- 
pened since, or for a moment have imagined 
how much more difficult the problems of 
government would become even in a single 
decade. The great empires of the world 
then seemed so firmly rooted as to defy 
attack, but they have fallen like Babylon. 
The monarchs of Russia, Austria, Germany, 
and China are dead or in exile. The self- 
styled Czar of Bulgaria, the King of Bavaria, 
Princes, Grand Dukes, great nobles and 
lesser potentates innumerable are banished 
and only seeking to escape the public gaze 
in which they were wont to rejoice. Autoc- 
racy is dead for all time so far as man can 
see, and no one knows what is to follow. 
Russia is in the throes of violent and bloody 
revolution, and its government in the hands 
of men who respect neither life nor any law 



THE PRESENT SITUATION 3 

save their own will. Germany is a problem, 
and while the great conflagration seems ex- 
tinguished, the embers of war are blazing in 
many places, and wherever we look the pros- 
pect is clouded, and the future uncertain. 

Our own country is the theatre of conflicts 
between various forces whose comparative 
strength it is difficult to estimate. New 
theories of government are proposed, racial 
prejudices are cultivated, the people are 
broken into various factions, industry is dis- 
turbed, and as we look back, life fifty years 
ago seems wonderfully simple as compared 
with the disorganization and confusion 
which prevail to-day. Never in our history 
were unselfishness, courage, wisdom, pa- 
tience, and public spirit more needed in the 
conduct of our public affairs. There was 
never a greater opportunity for men of high 
ideals and generous ambitions. 

The Godkin Lectures, which I am ap- 
pointed to deliver this year, by the terms of 
the foundation are to deal with "the essen- 



4 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

tials of free government and the duties of 
the citizen," which must as a rule be the 
same whatever side the citizen takes on pub- 
lic questions as they arise. The lecturer is 
to present the setting of the stage, not to 
determine the roles of the actors. No mat- 
ter how strong may be his views on the issues 
of the day, this is not the time or place to 
express them. I shall endeavor in what I 
say to respect these conditions. 

Every young man as he prepares for life 
must needs ask himself. What is my duty? 
How can I best serve my country and help 
to solve her problems? Or, to put it more 
simply, What part must I take in politics ? 

The answers must vary with the man and 
his circumstances, but whatever one seeks 
to accomplish in public service, he must be 
in a position to do what he thinks right. He 
must be relieved from the danger of being 
driven to lower his standards or be false to 
his principles by the needs of himself or his 
family, or by "entangling alliances," as bad 



THE CITIZEN'S POLITICAL DUTY s 

in a small way for the man as they may be 
in a large way for the nation. He must be 
his own man and stand on his own feet. 

Let us take first the problem as it presents 
itself to the young man who does not inherit 
a competence, and who finds that his first 
duty is to earn his living. If, as he should, 
he marries, he adds the support of others to 
his burdens, and unless he proposes to live 
upon charity he must, as we used to say, 
" pull his weight in the boat." To be of any 
service in the world, and not be a burden 
upon it, he must support himself and his 
family. This should not, however, take all 
his time. There are few men who are not 
interested in public questions and who have 
not time enough to study them, and the first 
duty of the voter is to make up his own mind 
as to what the public interest requires. You 
may recall the verse in one of the operas, 
" Every child that is born alive, is either a 
little Liberal or else a little Conservative." 
One's political views are very apt to be in- 



6 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

herited, imbibed in childhood from the con- 
versation of one's parents or their friends, 
and these inherited notions are afterward 
held with extreme tenacity as a part of the 
family faith. Like the little superstitions 
which we learn in the nursery, they have 
deep roots. This is unfortunate, for party 
names change their meaning gradually, and 
it may well be that a party will reverse its 
attitude completely, as the Democratic 
Party, formed to maintain human freedom 
by that apostle of liberty, Thomas Jefferson, 
became in time the party which defended 
and sought to extend human slavery, while 
the Republican Party, which began as the 
opponent of slavery, became the party of 
high protection and imperialism. To-day 
adherence to either party may lead one into 
positions which cannot be defended success- 
fully, for old political alignments were not 
made upon the questions of to-day. The 
world changes faster than men change their 
prejudices. 



THE CITIZEN'S POLITICAL DUTY 7 

The problems of taxation were simple 
when a billion-dollar Congress horrified the 
people, but when the activities of the Gov- 
ernment call for many billions, it needs far 
more wisdom, experience, and courage to 
distribute the burden justly, and to guard 
against the extravagant expenditure of 
money, which is easily raised from a rich 
country. When the United States held a 
population of five million people separated 
from Europe and Asia by seas which it took 
weeks to cross, when cables, wireless teleg- 
raphy, and fast steamships were unknown, 
the relations of the United States with for- 
eign nations presented very different ques- 
tions from those which we must deal with as 
a world power, raising larger armies than 
ever existed before to fight on European 
battle-fields, and extending our sway over 
Asiatic peoples thousands of miles from our 
shores. 

When differences between employer and 
employed affected only the parties immedi- 



8 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

ately concerned, we thought we could afford 
to disregard them, but when they threaten 
by stopping the operation of our railroads to 
arrest the business of the country, and to 
deprive whole regions of the food and the 
fuel which the people who dwell there must 
have in order to live, we realize that the 
public must act in self-defence. No existing 
party was formed to deal with questions like 
these, and every party finds its members 
divided when such issues are raised. 

It is clearly the duty of every man, and 
especially of every educated man, to study 
the situation of the country, to master the 
facts and decide what must be done to meet 
the difficulties which confront us. Some at 
least of the time that is spent in games or 
desultory reading might be devoted to this 
study with far better results to the student 
himself as well as to the State. Among the 
multiplicity of issues there is probably for 
every man one or perhaps two which interest 
him especially. If so, he should throw his 



THE CITIZEN'S POLITICAL DUTY 9 

strength into these and work to have them 
rightly dealt with, for by concentration of 
effort the best results are obtained, and the 
man who does or helps to do one thing well, 
deserves the gratitude of his fellows. In 
politics as elsewhere a jack-of-all-trades is 
apt to be the master of none. 

But far too many of our educated and 
successful men sneer at politics, are content 
to let them be managed by " practical men," 
as they are called, think that they degrade 
themselves and waste their time by taking 
part in political struggles, and that they can- 
not afford to divert time and energy from 
their business. A little reflection would 
make these men realize that good govern- 
ment is an essential part of their business. 
The fortune heaped up by years of constant 
labor may be swept away in a single night 
by a fire which proper building laws and an 
efficient fire department would have pre- 
vented. Every large city in the country, 
New York, Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, to 



10 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

name only conspicuous examples, has had 
this experience. There is scarcely a city 
to-day which does not contain districts that 
may at any time be the starting-place of a 
great conflagration. The men who suffer 
from these disasters have allowed the gov- 
ernment of their cities to fall into incom- 
petent hands. They have neglected an im- 
portant part of their business. 

A man may devote himself to acquiring 
wealth for his children, may educate them, 
house them luxuriously, give them every 
accomplishment that will fit them to adorn 
society, only to see them die before his eyes 
because the city water which they drank, 
polluted through the neglect of city officials, 
has brought disease into his very home. 
They may contract some contagious dis- 
order in the theatre or the crowded store or 
the public conveyance, and he will learn too 
late that the Health Department fell into 
the hands of uneducated politicians, because 
he did not attend to his business. 



THE CITIZEN'S POLITICAL DUTY ii 

The public schools, the police, the high- 
ways, all the services to the citizen which 
the public provides concern every citizen, 
not merely the poor man to whom they are 
vital, but the rich who will find that when 
their poorer neighbors suffer, sooner or later 
they must suffer also. 

The waste of the people's money, whether 
due to corruption or to incompetence, means 
increasing taxes, which heighten the cost of 
living and foster public discontent with all 
that it implies. A change in the tariff, made 
perhaps in return for contributions to a 
campaign fund, may enrich one body of 
manufacturers, ruin others, and impose im- 
proper burdens on the whole community. 
Every business man to-day feels the load of 
taxation which cripples his efforts, and as 
a mere matter of business he is as much 
interested in having a proper tax law and 
public economy, as he is in reducing any 
other expense which enters into the cost of 
doing business. 



12 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

An unwise foreign policy may embroil us 
in needless war, and send our nearest and 
dearest to die in tropical deserts or in arctic 
regions far from home, while a public debt 
and a long pension list are left to be carried 
by our children and grandchildren upon 
whom the sins of the fathers are thus visited. 

In a word, government is a business in 
which every citizen is a partner and to 
which he must attend, if only as a matter of 
business. He can no more neglect it with- 
out suffering for his neglect than he can 
neglect his housekeeping, the expenses of his 
factory or his store, or cease to care whether 
his employees are honest or competent. The 
banker who does not see how his clerks do 
their work, or whether their accounts bal- 
ance, faces ruin. The public treasury is the 
bank of us all, and under self-government 
the voters are the bankers. The neglect 
which spells disaster to the private banker, 
spells disaster to us just as inevitably in one 
case as in the other, though the public takes 



THE CITIZEN'S POLITICAL DUTY 13 

longer to find it out. Says a student of pub- 
lic affairs : 

In my reform labors I have found that the most 
dangerous enemies of reform have not been the 
ignorant and poor, but men of wealth, of high social 
position and character, who had nothing personally 
to gain from political corruption, but who showed 
themselves as unfitted to exercise the right of 
suffrage as the lowest proletariat, by allowing their 
partisanship to enlist them in the support of candi- 
dates notoriously bad who happened by control of 
party machinery to obtain the "regular" nomina- 
tions. 

I have said that the citizen is apt to leave 
the business of the community to be run 
by "practical men." The result may be em- 
phasized by an anecdote. 

Some years ago two Americans, who had 
both been spending the summer in Europe 
met for the first time on the home-bound 
steamer. The first night out they were 
walking the deck together when one turned 
to the other and said, "You live in the city 
which is governed by the meanest, dirtiest, 
most corrupt political gang in the United 



14 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

States." The other, after a moment's re- 
flection, said, "Yes, that is so." Then, sud- 
denly reflecting further, he went on, "But 
how do you know where I Hve?" "I don't 
know" was the reply. 

Look where you will. In New York you 
will find Tammany somewhat improved 
perhaps since the days of Tweed, but still no 
supporter of honest government. Philadel- 
phia is described as "corrupt but contented." 
We have our own vivid recollection of the 
experience through which Boston has 
passed. St. Louis has added its chapter of 
shame exposed by Folk. The Golden Gate 
admits the traveller to a city which has no 
association with any golden age. As a rule, 
wherever the community is too large to be 
governed by a town meeting or its equiva- 
lent, the story is the same. Like causes 
produce like results. 

Our whole government is conducted on 
the amazing theory that no matter what a 
man's education or character may be, he 



PUBLIC OFFICERS 15 

is fit to fill any public office. To quote 
Lord Bryce again, 

The fact is, that the Americans have ignored in 
all their legislative as in many of their administrative 
arrangements, the differences of capacity between 
man and man. They underrate the difficulties of 
government and overrate the capacities of the man 
of common sense. 

If a son is to undertake the management 
of his father's mill, he must begin at the 
beginning in the process of manufacture and 
work his way up, until, familiar with every 
step, he is competent to direct the whole. 
In private life training is required to fit a 
man for any work but simple manual labor, 
as the plumber who mends your pipes must 
now hold a certificate of fitness. But when 
the whole public is to be served, as by the 
postmaster when certain and prompt deliv- 
ery of mail is of the greatest importance to 
the community, or by the superintendent of 
some great public essential like the sewerage 
of a city, neither education, experience, nor 
fitness for the work is the first thing con- 



i6 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

sidered, and the place is turned over to some 
untrained person because he has rendered 
efficient political service to the "practical 
men" who have been trusted with the power 
of selection by their fellow-citizens. The 
appointee may prove efficient, but no pains 
are taken to insure that result. The "prac- 
tical men" are indeed very "practical" and 
accomplish their objects with almost uni- 
form success, but those objects are per- 
sonal : — power and personal emolument, 
with only so much attention to the wants of 
the community as is necessary to prevent 
the popular uprising which once in so often 
drives bad administrators into private life. 
The young man of high public spirit must 
recognize his duty to do his share towards 
securing good government for his country, 
his state, and his city, but the most sordid 
citizen if he has eyes to see must learn that 
as a mere matter of self-interest he must do 
likewise. 

I remember that when I was a student 



EVERY MAN HAS INFLUENCE 17 

here I was taught about the resultant of 
forces. When an object is pushed by oppos- 
ing but not diametrically opposing forces at 
the same time, it advances upon a line which 
is the resultant of them all. Each force has 
its weight in affecting its course, and not 
even the least is without some influence. So 
it is with voters. No man and no party can 
have his or its own way absolutely, but 
every one who chooses to exert his influence 
by voice or vote affects the national policy 
somewhat. The harder his push the greater 
the eflfect, but if he does not push at all the 
resultant is deflected against him; the 
course of public affairs is more or less 
affected by his non-action. He must not 
expect to control, but it is his duty to exer- 
cise his just influence. 

Besides the young man with his living to 
earn there is, however, another and an in- 
creasing class, the young men of fortune, 
who, born independent, can devote their 
lives to the public service, and who wish 



1 8 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

to do their duty by their country, while 
at the same time they are not without the 
hope of achieving fame for themselves. The 
problem presented to them is somewhat dif- 
ferent from that which confronts most of us, 
and the difference must be recognized, but it 
is not so great as to prevent our considering 
the duty of the two classes together. 

Every one will admit that whatever one's 
object in politics, it is best accomplished by 
some organization. The most gifted man 
preaching the clearest truth can do little 
while he stands alone. He must gather 
disciples, he must have followers willing to 
support his cause, or he accomplishes noth- 
ing. There is no dearth of organizations 
ready to welcome new adherents. There are 
first the two great national parties, the Re- 
publican and the Democratic, and a varying 
number of small parties. Labor, Socialist, 
and the like, among which, however, the 
Prohibition Party is not likely to be counted 
much longer. There are next a variety of 



ORGANIZATIONS NECESSARY 19 

organizations formed to promote definite 
causes, like the Civil Service Reform 
League, the Tariff Reform League, and 
others more or less permanent, while there 
are also ephemeral organizations of various 
kinds which accomplish their object and dis- 
band, or become discouraged and die. These 
parties and leagues each have their place 
and are to be treated as tools to be used 
when occasion serves, as a carpenter uses 
now a saw and now a plane, and he who 
surrenders himself to any single association 
is like the mechanic who has only a single 
tool. 

So far as the smaller parties, usually 
called "third parties," are concerned, they 
are valuable in that they afford an oppor- 
tunity for "conscientious objectors." Those 
who on national issues vote for the candi- 
dates of these parties make a more or less 
vain protest, and they may draw away 
enough votes from one great party to give 
the victory to its rival. Sometimes, when 



20 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

neither party presents an acceptable candi- 
date, men vote a third-party ticket rather 
than abstain from voting altogether. These 
votes may indicate to party leaders where 
danger lies, but otherwise they are ineffect- 
ual and the results of third-party move- 
ments are negligible. Unless some great 
issue rouses the moral sense of the people 
and neither great party rises to the occasion, 
as when the Republican Party was founded, 
the enormous expenditure of money and 
time which is necessary in order to create 
and maintain a party organization prevents 
the success of such movements. In a great 
crisis only can a great party be born. 

Does it follow that a voter should join 
one or the, other of the great parties ? In 
my judgment "no." The opinion of an in- 
telligent foreigner is history, and no for- 
eigner has studied our political life more 
thoroughly and with greater intelligence 
than Lord Bryce. Consider the great issues 
of the day, and then listen to these words : 



THE GREAT PARTIES 21 

Neither party has, as a party, anything definite 
to say on these issues; neither party has any clean- 
cut principles, any distinctive tenets. Both have 
certain war cries, organizations, interests enlisted 
in their support. But those interests are in the main 
the interests of getting or keeping the patronage of 
the government. Tenets and policies, points of 
political doctrine and points of political practice, 
have all but vanished. They have not been thrown 
away, but have been stripped away by Time and 
the progress of events, fulfilling some policies, blot- 
ting out others. All has been lost, except ofiice or 
the hope of it. 

An eminent journalist remarked to me in 1908 
that the two great parties were like two bottles. 
Each wore a label denoting the kind of liquor it 
contained, but each was empty. 

When life leaves an organic body it becomes use- 
less, fetid, pestiferous; it is fit to be cast out or 
buried from sight. What life is to an organism, 
principles are to a party. When they which are its 
soul have vanished, its body ought to dissolve, and 
the elements that formed it be regrouped in some 
new organism. 

How much of truth is there in this indict- 
ment ? 
Let me first recall to you Lincoln's words : 



22 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

The legitimate object of government is to do for 
a community of people whatever they need to have 
done but cannot do at all or cannot do so well for 
themselves in their separate and individual capaci- 
ties. I think a definition of "popular sovereignty" in 
the abstract would be this: that each man shall do 
precisely what he pleases with himself, and with 
those things that exclusively concern him . . . that 
a general government shall do all those things which 
pertain to it and all the local governments shall do 
precisely as they please in respect to matters which 
exclusively concern them. 

The General Government deals with the 
questions which concern the whole country, 
federal taxation, the tariff, interstate com- 
merce, the army and navy, the postal service, 
the currency and the like. 

The State deals with a wholly different 
class of questions, the punishment of ordi- 
nary crime, the administration of charities, 
water-supply, public services of various 
sorts, such as street railways, savings banks, 
roads, the enforcement of state laws, the 
local courts of justice, and other matters of 
the same sort. 



PARTIES AND LOCAL AFFAIRS 23 

The city or town officers deal with purely 
local affairs, such as protection against fire, 
clean streets, good sewerage, the keeping of 
public records like those of birth, marriages, 
and deaths, the public health, public parks 
and baths, and all the various things which 
make the life of \he citizen pleasant and 
healthy or the reverse. 

Now it is perfectly apparent that two men 
may differ widely on questions of tariff or 
currency, and yet may be equally anxious 
to have clean streets and good sewers. They 
may or may not agree as to universal mili- 
tary service or the prevention of strikes, and 
yet be equally desirous to have able and 
upright courts of justice. They may differ 
on one cardinal question of national policy 
and be in absolute accord on every state and 
municipal matter. 

The first objection to the party system 
now prevailing in this country is that it uses 
one organization to deal with every question 
arising either in the nation, the state, or the 



24 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

city. The National Democratic Party pre- 
sents its ticket for mayor of New York and 
for the judges who preside in the courts of 
that city as regularly as it asks for support 
when the President of the United States is 
to be chosen, and both parties pursue the 
same course all over the country. Republi- 
cans and Democrats may be partners in 
business, may sit together as directors of 
the same corporation, may belong to the 
same church or the same club, and in all 
these relations agree perfectly. Both un- 
doubtedly want clean streets in their city, 
but let an election come and instead of com- 
bining to elect a man competent to keep the 
streets clean, they vote against each other, 
each supporting very likely a man of whose 
fitness he knows nothing, because he is 
nominated by the national party which he 
has joined on account of its attitude on the 
tariff. Why should not two men who agree 
in all matters of private business get to- 
gether when questions of public business on 



PARTIES AND LOCAL AFFAIRS 25 

which they also agree are to be determined? 
When the national, state, and municipal 
elections are held on the same day, as they 
often are, there are presented to the voter 
two party ballots containing the names of 
candidates for national office who are to deal 
with national questions, candidates for state 
offices who are to deal with state questions, 
and candidates for local offices who are to 
deal with local questions, and the voter who 
is Republican or Democrat on national 
issues is expected to vote the whole ticket, 
often in entire ignorance of the views enter- 
tained by the candidates for state and local 
offices as well as of their character and 
efficiency. As illustrations, we have had in 
Chicago a ballot two feet, two inches by 
eighteen and a half inches, with 334 names ; 
in New York a ballot two feet, four inches 
by eight and a half inches, with 825 names. 
It is as if the judge presiding in some 
court were to say to the jurymen at the 
opening of a term, "Gentlemen, there will 



26 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

come before you for trial at this term a 
great variety of cases. There will be suits 
against railroads for damages caused by 
accidents, there will be suits against various 
parties on promissory notes, there will be 
actions of libel, there will be suits by build- 
ers to recover for their work in erecting 
houses, there will be contests over wills, and 
others too numerous to mention. The 
parties in each case will be different, the 
merits of the cases will vary, the questions 
raised will differ widely, but you must ad- 
here to one simple rule. In the first case you 
must render your verdict according to the 
evidence after due deliberation, but that 
verdict will govern the verdict in every other 
case. If in that first case your verdict is 
for the plaintiff, it must be for the plaintiff 
in every other case tried before you. If for 
the defendant you must find for the defend- 
ant in every case." Such a charge would be 
deemed the quintessence of absurdity, yet it 
is the practical rule on which a majority of 



HOW PARTIES ARE CONTROLLED 27 

the voters all over the country have been 
wont to act. 

The treaty of peace with Germany affords 
an excellent illustration of the way in 
which the party system works. The ques- 
tions which it presents are national ques- 
tions, and however they are decided, the de- 
cision affects every citizen of the United 
States alike. If the treaty makes war more 
probable. Republicans and Democrats alike 
must fight in our armies and share the sac- 
rifices and expenses which war entails. If 
Japan ought not to have the rights jand 
privileges in China which for brevity we call 
Shantung, no Republican gains or loses by 
a decision either for or against her, anything 
that his Democratic neighbor does not also 
gain or lose. Yet with few exceptions we 
find the Senate dividing on party lines and 
ignoring the sound rule that in dealing with 
foreign countries party contests should cease 
at the seashore. 

These results are due to the fact that these 



28 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

great party organizations fall under the con- 
trol of men who are willing to give their 
lives or a considerable part of their lives to 
the business of running them, many from 
personal ambition, many to gain office as a 
livelihood, or influence which can be made 
profitable, and some from a laudable desire 
to serve the public. Whatever the original 
motive, the first two classes know that their 
future depends on the success of the party 
which they have chosen to join, and the 
members of the third class soon learn to 
sympathize with those who have acted with 
them in great campaigns, and to distrust 
those who have opposed them. They are 
easily led to look through partisan spectacles 
unless at any time the issue is peculiarly 
clear. 

The view of the party leader is expressed 
crudely in the article from a Tennessee 
newspaper, from which I quote the follow- 
ing: 

The Record laments with all its sorrowful soul 



PARTISANSHIP 29 

the breaking-up of partisan Democracy, the decay 
of militant organization, the loose-jointed ram- 
shackleness of doctrine. This paper believes in 
organization, in loyalty to party, in following the 
leaders, in the party whip, in intolerant force to 
keep the ranks closed, in old-time allegiance, in bet- 
ter sticking to principles, in reading men out when 
they flicker or rebel. 

It's the only way to win ! And to stay won ! If 
you do not believe in them, go and join something 
else. If you cannot stand square up to the rack, get 
out of the stall and let somebody eat the fodder. A 
party to win wants men it can count on every day in 
the week. 

It is the only fault in Woodrow Wilson. If he 
had drawn the bull whip he could have forced the 
Democratic senators to eat out of his hand. As it is, 
he and every man-jack of them has his own stan- 
dard of Democracy. He had no business congratu- 
lating a Republican for beating a Democrat for 
Governor of the State of Massachusetts. He sets an 
example of recalcitrancy. He is the leader of the 
Democratic Party, elected by that party, and It is his 
bounden duty to stand by that party. The party 
committed a blunder in Massachusetts, but are you 
going to kill your goose because it misses laying a 
golden egg every time.? It was our party leader's 
business to pat them on the back and tell them not 
to blunder again. There are a thousand other virtues 
in the Democratic Party in Massachusetts that are 



30 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY . 

worth fostering, and a thousand other vices in the 
Republican Party that condemn it, and are you 
going to judge them by only one act? 

The word "partisan" has been brought into un- 
merited disrepute somehow, when the God's truth is 
that it is not only right and righteous, but it is 
the only right way to win. Stand by the colors ! 

The party leaders wish well-discipHned 
armies, and they recognize the fact that it is 
dangerous to let their followers act with 
their opponents at all. It is the essence of 
Republican faith that all Democrats are bad 
and unfit to be trusted with power, while 
Democrats are taught to regard Republi- 
cans as supporters of privilege and plutoc- 
racy, combined in what is gracefully called 
a "plunderbund." These beliefs would be 
rudely shaken if Republican and Democrat 
should work side by side in a city or a state 
election. They would learn to know each 
other, to find points of agreement, to recog- 
nize that they really want the same things, 
and the leaders could no longer count on 
the constant support of their followers. 



PARTISANSHIP 31 

I recall a very indignant letter from a dis- 
tinguished Republican leader to me after 
Seth Low as an independent candidate had 
sought to wrest the control of New York 
City from Tammany Hall and had been 
defeated because the Republican organiza- 
tion, instead of supporting him, had nomi- 
nated a Republican candidate and so divided 
the vote against Tammany, in which my 
correspondent said that Mr. Low ought "to 
be spanked from one end of Broadway to 
the other." Mr. Low would have made and 
afterward did make an admirable mayor, 
and was an eminent Republican, but he was 
not the candidate of the national organiza- 
tion, and so deserved condign punishment. 
My correspondent was a Massachusetts 
man, but he thought he knew better than 
New York Republicans of equal standing, 
who was a proper candidate for mayor in 
New York City. 

Another motive which induces the na- 
tional parties to insist on controlling state 



32 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

and local elections is found in the patronage 
of state and city which can be and is used 
to reward political service. If the local elec- 
tion turned on the question whether the 
streets of the city should be kept clean and 
well-paved, the candidates would probably 
be selected because of their executive ability 
and their experience in street-cleaning, and 
whichever was elected the street-cleaning de- 
partment would be organized and run so as 
to do well the work for which it was created. 
The result would be better for the streets 
and those who use them, but so much pat- 
ronage would be lost to the party. Hence 
it is important that men should be led to 
vote for candidates according to their views 
on the tariff without regard to their fitness 
as street-cleaners. 

It should be obvious that the wishes of 
the party organization and the interests of 
the voters in these matters do not coincide, 
and that while organization is necessary in 
order to accomplish a public object, it 



MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 33 

should be an organization formed with that 
object in view and it should invite all to join 
who sympathize with its purpose. In the 
city it should be a "clean-street," "pure- 
water" party — in the state, perhaps, as 
lately in Massachusetts, a "law-and-order" 
party, or a party formed to secure good state 
government. The voter whose object is to 
secure some definite public good should be 
careful to see that his vote is so cast as to 
accomplish that object and is not thrown 
away on a false issue. 

In passing, let me make a few practical 
suggestions. If, as should be the case, you 
seek to improve conditions in your own city 
or town, to secure for yourself and your 
fellow-citizens an honest and efficient ad- 
ministration of your local business, there 
are two things to be borne in mind. 

One is that there is no royal road to good 
city government. There are many who 
think that if they can get a good city charter, 
they can go off and leave it to work auto- 



34 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

matically. To such let me quote the words 
of Carl Schurz: "If Gabriel draws your 
charter and Lucifer administers it, your 
government will be bad. If Lucifer draws 
your charter and Gabriel is called upon to 
administer it, your government will be 
good." We often speak of the forces which 
govern us as "the machine." The compari- 
son is misleading. There is no machine, but 
a combination of men, often called "a com- 
bine." As the best machine needs human 
hands to work it, and if the hands are good 
will accomplish good results, while in bad 
hands it is easily wrecked or useless, so the 
powers which a charter gives must be trusted 
to honest men or the best charter fails to 
accomplish its purpose. 

The second thing is that good city govern- 
ment is only won by hard and persistent 
work. The men who form "the combine" are 
regulars. They are working for their living 
every day in the year, and they cannot be 
defeated by volunteers who enlist for a cam- 



MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 35 

paign of a few weeks preceding an election. 
The machine must be met by a well-organ- 
ized force ready to do all the work which is 
needed, remembering, however, that a force 
so working for right need not work quite so 
hard as one which is working for evil — 
"Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel 
just." 

The trouble with organizations formed to 
secure good municipal government too often 
is that they lack initiative. Instead of se- 
lecting candidates of their own and calling 
upon their fellow-citizens to help elect them 
because they will make good officers, they 
yield so far to the party system that they 
let the little coteries of politicians who call 
themselves Republican or Democratic com- 
mittees make their nominations, and then 
take "Hobson's choice," never an inspiring 
alternative. The result is such an announce- 
ment as was made a few weeks ago by the 
Good Government Association of Boston 
which was as follows : 



36 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

We do not find in the entire list of candidates 
anyone whom, according to our standard of charac- 
ter and experience, we can recommend for election. 
We feel, however, that we owe a duty to the voters 
to point out at least those of the candidates who 
in our opinion are most likely to render some service 
in, the council. Our list, therefore, must be consid- 
ered not one of recommendation, but merely as the 
best under all the circumstances. 
The statement says further that the candi- 
dates 

are as great in number, with few exceptions, and 
less in quality, with no exception, than in any year 
since the new charter was inaugurated. 

Efficient municipal government is not 
likely to be secured by men whose labors 
produce such a result as this. We need men 
who will lead and are not content with a 
choice of evils. 

Pursuing our investigation we must be 
struck with the fact that great parties do 
their work, accomplish the object for which 
they were formed, and then tend to become 
mercenary armies. The Republican Party 
was formed to keep slavery out of the terri- 



PARTISAN FEELING 37 

tories, and was forced to fight the Civil War 
in order to abolish slavery and to reconstruct 
the Union. This done its work was done, 
but its organization continued, and for a 
while lived on the feelings and prejudices 
created by the war. "There's another Presi- 
dency in the bloody shirt" was the pithy 
saying of a Presidential candidate who never 
realized his ambition, but it stated the tie 
which kept the party together. The Demo- 
cratic Party had opposed the Government, 
had declared the war a failure, and it took 
years to recover from the odium of having 
tried in the interest of slavery to defeat the 
effort to restore the Union, while the Repub- 
lican Party lived because the people did not 
trust its rival. 

The end of the reconstruction period, 
which may be said to have come during the 
administration of President Hayes, practi- 
cally left the parties without an issue, and 
since then they have been seeking an issue 
for each election; as, for example, lately 



38 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

when Republican leaders proposed that the 
treaty of peace with Germany should go 
unratified and the whole world be left to 
suffer for a year and very likely two in order 
to create an issue for the next Presidential 
election. 

A little reflection will open your eyes to 
the truth. It is not difficult to read in the 
party platform what passed when the party 
leaders met to frame it. We need not be 
present at the meeting. They do not come 
together determined to state clearly some 
great purpose and to consider how best they 
can present it to the people and lead them 
to support it. On the contrary, their atti- 
tude is that of followers, not leaders. They 
seek to discover what the voters want and 
promise that, having in view the various 
bodies of voters whose wishes are often 
opposed, and trying to attract them all. 
Their discussion proceeds somewhat in this 
way : "We must have a plank or two on the 
labor question so drawn as to get the labor 



HOW PLATFORMS ARE MADE 39 

vote without antagonizing the employers to 
whom we must look for contributions to the 
campaign fund. We need some strong prom- 
ises to the veterans, or we may lose the 
soldier vote. Such promises if kept mean 
increased taxes and higher cost of living, but 
the cost falls on the public, and we must 
therefore have another plank insisting on 
the strictest economy in the expenditure of 
public money and promising to reduce the 
cost of living." So the debate proceeds, and 
the careful student who examines the oppos- 
ing platforms of the great parties for a series 
of years and compares promise with per- 
formance will find much to amuse him, and 
be left with the conviction that the voter is 
less intelligent than he thinks himself and 
more easily fooled. 

The Republican Party records with pride 
that it freed the slave and made him a citi- 
zen, with all the rights of a citizen, by 
the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth 
Amendments to the Constitution. We 



40 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

know that in a large part of the country the 
negro's rights are denied. When has there 
been in any RepubHcan platform a clear-cut 
demand that those rights shall be recog- 
nized? Why does the party leave its great 
work unfinished? The answer is simple. 
There is danger that such a declaration 
would cost some doubtful states. 

In 1852 both Whigs and Democrats in- 
sisted that the Compromise of 1850 had 
settled the slavery question. The country 
was on the eve of civil war, but the party 
leaders closed their eyes to the situation and 
a new party sprang into being. The party 
managers say to each other, "Find some 
issue, some slogan, some cry like 'Tippe- 
canoe and Tyler too,' which will appeal to 
the hysterical public, and frame our plat- 
form accordingly." We all know that they 
have in mind the votes of various classes, the 
soldier vote, the labor vote, the woman 
suffrage vote, the Irish vote, or the German 
vote, and that their platforms are drawn to 



REFORMS AND THE PARTIES 41 

attract them, though comparatively little 
effort is made to fulfil the platform promises. 
Hence the saying that political platforms are 
like the platforms of railroad cars, "made to 
get in by, not to stand on." Men whose 
only object is to win an election are not the 
men to lead a great country in a great crisis. 
We want men who would rather risk defeat 
than fail to face a threatening danger. We 
never hit high by aiming low. 

It is a significant fact that the names of 
men prominent as leaders during years of 
public life are rarely associated with any 
great reform or wise law. The great changes 
in our government which are embodied in 
recent amendments to the constitution are 
not the work of the parties. The popular 
election of senators was brought about by a 
demand coming from members of both par- 
ties. National prohibition was never a party 
issue, but was secured by an independent 
organization formed for that purpose, and 
against the private desire of many legislators 



42 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY ' 

who voted for it, if not of a majority. In 
like manner woman suffrage has been won 
by the efforts of persons most of whom were 
not even voters. If any great reform is to be 
accompHshed, it cannot be left for any ex- 
isting party to push it. We must have an 
organization formed to support it. 

So it is with minor reforms. The Civil 
Ser\dce Reform law was passed in the second 
session of a Congress. In both Houses of 
Congress there was a Republican majority 
and at the first session the reform was openly 
flouted by the party leaders. "Snivel service 
reform" and like opprobrious epithets were 
used to describe it, and though both parties 
in their platform had professed great regard 
for it. Congress would have none of it. An 
independent association or series of associa- 
tions was formed to promote it. The ques- 
tion was carried into the elections. Some 
civil service reformers were elected, the Re- 
publicans lost their majority, and as soon 
as the second session of Congress opened 



REFORMS AND THE PARTIES 43 

they hastened to pass the law, not even tak- 
ing time to debate it in the House of Repre- 
sentatives. 

The Australian ballot and other political 
reforms have been carried by like organiza- 
tions, and we cannot doubt that the future 
will repeat the past. 

Assuming that every man means that his 
vote shall do some good, that he does not 
vote for the mere sake of voting or because 
it is the fashion to vote, it is clear that he 
must have in mind some object and decide 
for whom to vote in order to attain it. The 
men who are Republicans or Democrats be- 
cause their fathers were, who vote against 
the peace treaty because their fathers voted 
for the abolition of slavery, have little in- 
fluence in elections. They are the capital of 
the "bosses," the men upon whose support 
they can rely no matter what the issue or 
how bad the candidate. They subscribe to 
the doctrine thus announced by a Republi- 
can governor of Massachusetts : 



44 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

We are engaged in a prolonged political warfare 
in this country. Two great political armies are 
arrayed against each other . . . and each man's duty 
is to stand by the flag that symbolizes his political 
faith and yield loyal support to the man who has 
been selected to bear that standard. 

In short, he must surrender his judgment 
and his conscience to the party managers, 
the "practical men." 

The country once applauded the senti- 
ment, "He serves his party best who serves 
his country best." This doctrine reverses it 
and makes service to one's party the best 
service to one's country. It is to say, "Our 
party right or wrong." No party magnates 
need concern themselves about the votes 
which they cannot lose. It is the doubtful 
votes for which they must bid, the votes 
which they are likely to lose. They make 
one plank for the soldier vote and another 
for the labor vote. If we want to use a great 
party to accomplish some reform, we must 
have a reform vote so large and in the hands 
of men so much in earnest that they cannot 



THE PARTIES BID FOR VOTES 45 

be disregarded. The larger such a vote is 
and the more thoroughly it is organized, the 
more each party bids for it, and the party 
which keeps its platform promises — whose 
acts support its words — makes the best bid. 
It is not by slavish adherence to any party, 
but by willingness to act independently, that 
a body of voters exercises an influence on 
policies and makes party an effective tool. 
The labor vote passes an Adamson bill, the 
soldier vote gets enlarged pensions. We 
must have a citizen's vote which will get 
wise legislation for the public as a whole. 

It is not, therefore, by joining a party and 
adhering to it through thick and thin that a 
citizen exercises his proper influence in pub- 
lic affairs. It is by enlisting for a cause in 
some organization formed to advance that 
cause, and making that organization so 
strong that the parties must bid for its vote, 
that one really works to some purpose in 
politics, and this is the course which experi- 
ence commends to a public-spirited man. 



46 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

A few words more and I shall leave this 
branch of my subject. There are men who 
starting in life are attracted by politics and 
enlist in some organization, relying on the 
prospect of salaried office for support. As 
a rule he who yields to this temptation faces 
disaster. For a while, perhaps, everything 
runs smoothly and promotion is rapid. On 
the strength of success the young man mar- 
ries and adds to his own the expenses of a 
family. If he holds an elective office, sooner 
or later his party is defeated or some more 
popular candidate takes the nomination of 
his party away from him, and perhaps when 
he is too old to begin a new career, and when 
his expenses are at their maximum, he finds 
himself without support, compelled to beg 
for some appointment or some employment 
from political friends who would like to for- 
get him. If he holds by appointment the 
same misfortune may overtake him when 
his term expires or his office is abolished, or 
a change of parties drives him out. After 



OFFICES FOR LIVELIHOOD 47 

each national election we hear of "lame 
ducks" in Washington. These are Congress- 
men who have lost their seats. They stay in 
Washington seeking some appointment 
which will pay them enough to support 
them. They are to be pitied as they limp 
from office to office. Some are relieved for 
a while by an appointment, but many are 
lamed permanently. It is the sad end of an 
ambitious life. 

Moreover, if the party of an official who 
lives by his salary adopts a policy or nomi- 
nates a candidate to which his conscience 
objects, he must silence his conscience or 
abandon his livelihood. He cannot oppose 
his party and retain its support. This de- 
pendence on party turns many a man who 
might have been a brave and conscientious 
citizen into a miserable coward, or so far 
blunts his perception that he gradually 
comes to support men and opinions that at 
the outset of his career he would have 
scorned. Almost unconsciously step by step 



48 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

he goes down until if he recognized his de- 
scent he would say with Satan, "Farewell, 
remorse! All good to me is lost. Evil, be 
thou my good." 

The small class of men who do not depend 
on office for support may not meet with such 
complete ruin, but it is very hard for them 
to turn their backs upon their party and all 
it offers of honor and consideration to him 
who serves it faithfully. The man who has 
once tasted the sweets of power lays it down 
reluctantly, and the highways of politics are 
strewn with men who have sacrificed their 
ideals, or, as the phrase goes, have "sold their 
souls" for political preferment. 

The temptation which proved too much 
for these men is one of which he who aims 
at real success must always beware. Let him 
choose some cause worthy of high effort and 
devote himself to that, in office or out of 
office, never sacrificing it for any personal 
gain, and though the party builders reject 
him, thus and thus only can he become "the 



CAUSE GREATER THAN PARTY 49 

headstone of the corner." He who betrays 
his cause may get the "ribbon to stick on his 
coat," but the reward is worthless in the eyes 
of a real man. Whatever else you do as 
voters or as the holders of public office, do 
not follow him "who to party gave up what 
was meant for mankind." 

If you must be partisan, be the partisan of 
some great cause which is worthy of support, 
not the tool of the "practical men" who 
count on your ignorance and appeal to your 
prejudice. The citizen in his political action 
must, as Wendell Phillips said of the agi- 
tator, have "no bread to earn, no candidate 
to elect, no party to save, no object but the 
truth," if he would really serve his country. 

May I conclude as I concluded a discus- 
sion of this subject many years ago : 

"Whatever his field, however, let him who 
decides to seek a career in politics remember 
that in such a career office is an accident, 
and not an end. When he has made him- 
self the exponent of a cause, or has shown 



50 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

conspicuous ability to deal with some public 
question, he may find himself called to 
office, but the office is only an opportunity 
— a position of advantage from which to 
carry on the battle. In so doing he may 
incur odium, and may lose his office, but 
he should not therefore abandon the fight. 
'His Majesty's Opposition' is as necessary 
to good government as the Ministerial 
Bench. It is not success to be on the win- 
ning side. It is not success to get and keep 
office, if only the incumbent of the office is 
profited thereby. Nor is success to be de- 
termined by the issue of this or that election, 
or the results of a single decade. 

"It is success to fight bravely for a prin- 
ciple, even if one does not live to see it 
triumph. 

"He who would take part in politics, 
whether he merely wishes to do his duty, or 
desires a brilliant career, must learn to wait. 
He must plant him&elf on the historical 
standpoint and not expect to accomplish 



WHAT IS POLITICAL SUCCESS? 51 

great results in a single campaign. When 
Fremont was defeated it seemed to many as 
if the cause of freedom was lost forever, but 
in less than ten years slavery had ceased to 
exist. In 1864 many believed the war a 
failure, and a great party so pronounced it, 
but in a few months came Appomattox. 
When Hannibal was at the gates of Rome 
few of its citizens could look forward to 
Zama. The strong forces in human society 
are truth and courage, and they are sure to 
triumph in any contest with fraud and error, 
though it may take long to win the victory." 

There is wisdom in the words of Horace 
Mann when he saw a measure, to the prep- 
aration and support of which he had given 
years, defeated in the Massachusetts legis- 
lature, "The truth is that I was in a hurry 
and God is not." 

Political progress is a slow process of 
growth. It is the result of educating a whole 
community. For a while it seems as if noth- 
ing were accomplished ; but constant, patient 



52 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY , 

clTort gradually prepares the public mind, 
and iinally some trifling circumstance, some 
peculiarly clear case of abuse, produces a 
popular outburst, and thenceforth the path 
of reform is easy. 

At such a crisis the man who has long been 
identified with an unpopular cause may sud- 
denly lind himself a leader, and perhaps 
compelled by public demand to take office. 
If he regards it as an opportunity and con- 
tinues the fight all the more vigorously, his 
future is secure. If he falters and compro- 
mises with his principles for fear of losing 
his popularity and his office, he learns to 
realize the truth of the stern text: "Whoso- 
e\or Mill sa\'e his life shall lose it." Our 
national pathway is lined with the graves of 
men who have failed at the supreme moment 
and have died repeating that ''Republics are 
ungrateful," when to them at least their 
Republic has been only just. 

]^\er>' citizen who honestly studies the 
political questions of his time will reach 



HIGHEST TYPE OF CITIZEN 53 

definite conclusions as to how those ques- 
tions should be dealt with. If he will en- 
deavor actively to have them settled as he 
thinks they should be, and will give to the 
work a very moderate portion of his leisure 
throughout the year, he will not only do his 
duty as a citizen, but he will be surprised at 
the interest which he takes in the work and 
at the results which are accomplished. He 
will find that his horizon is broadened and 
his whole life made fuller and richer. This is 
in itself a sufiicient reward, if he wins no 
other. But if he is only true to principle, 
sooner or later his fellow-citizens will de- 
mand his service. If he is fitted to fill ofiice 
the ofiice will seek him. The highest type 
of the citizen is Cincinnatus. In the words 
of Heraclitus, which are as true in politics as 
in every other human pursuit : "Character is 
destiny." 



LAWLESSNESS 

In this lecture I propose to discuss what 
every citizen who would help his country is 
bound to respect — and that is the law. 

Laws are the rules which regulate the re- 
lations of men to society and to each other, 
which determine the rights of the citizen and 
his obligations to every other citizen and to 
the community at large, represented by city, 
state or nation. It is hardly too much to say 
that civilization is the process of restraining 
the will of the individual by law, that the 
liberty of a people depends on its success in 
curbing by a written or unwritten constitu- 
tion the power of its rulers, and that the 
cause of justice in the world is advanced by 
observing the law of nations. 

The law is the judgment of the community 
as to what is necessary or convenient, and 
when it ceases to accord with the needs of 
the community, the law itself prescribes how 



LAWS DEFINED 55 

it may be changed. Whenever a citizen in 
pubUc office or in private life asserts the right 
to break the law, whatever his reason, he 
substitutes his own judgment for the judg- 
ment of the community. Such a man con- 
stitutes himself the legislature, and- makes 
laws not only for himself, but for his neigh- 
bors at his pleasure. The wisest and most 
temperate cannot claim this power without 
conceding it to his most youthful, most care- 
less, most intemperate fellow-citizen. The 
power of making laws is in the legislature, 
and any one, be he President or schoolboy, 
who claims this power for himself and at 
his own pleasure breaks a law, opens the door 
to disorder and riot. 

As President Roosevelt well said: 

The corner-stone of this Republic, as of all free 
governments, is respect for and obedience to the 
law. Where men permit the law to be defied or 
evaded, whether by rich man or poor man, by black 
man or white, we are by just so much weakening the 
bonds of our civilization and increasing the chances 
of its overthrow and of the substitution therefor of 



56 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

a system in which there shall be violent alternations 
of anarchy and tyranny. 

Laws are of different value, but at any 
given time in a country like ours they rep- 
resent the wisdom of the majority, and they 
vary with the public opinion of the day. 
Some are passed to meet an emergency, 
some seem dictated by momentary hysteria, 
some are experiments, most of them are 
passed in haste. Often the lawmakers yield 
against their own judgment to a noisy public 
opinion, or hope to gain support from some 
body of voters who will profit by the legisla- 
tion. To the trained student of public affairs 
many laws seem unwise, many seem dan- 
gerous, many seem sure to fail, but against 
the soldier vote, or the labor vote, or the 
temperance vote, resistance seems hopeless. 
The wise man knows that many will prove 
futile and become dead letters, that public 
opinion will change and recognize the folly 
of others, and not infrequently he may find 
that his own wisdom was at fault, and that 



WISE AND UNWISE LAWS 57 

what seemed to him bad laws have worked 
well in practice. An experiment has suc- 
ceeded which he thought sure to fail. 

Nearly seventy years ago the Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts woke up one morn- 
ing to find that the control of her government 
had been secured by a secret organization 
called "the Know Nothings," a party 
founded on a feeling against foreign-born 
citizens and destined to enjoy a very brief 
existence. "The Know Nothing Legislat- 
ure," as it was called, proceeded diligently 
to legislate amid the scorn and ridicule of the 
defeated party leaders, and its work excited 
the liveliest apprehension among the con- 
servative citizens of the state. A very emi- 
nent lawyer told me some years ago that 
he had taken the pains to read through the 
statutes which that legislature passed and 
was amazed to find how very large a propor- 
tion of them had been embodied in the 
permanent legislation of Massachusetts, and 
how few were really foolish. 



58 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

The statesman and the scholar may find 
much to criticize in the laws at any time in 
force, but good or bad, wise or foolish, there 
is only one course open to the citizen and 
that is obedience to the law, while it is the 
law. "The best way to secure the repeal of 
a bad law is to enforce it," was the pithy 
saying of a great American. If it is bad the 
citizen may agitate against it by pen and 
tongue, may unite with others to educate his 
fellow-citizens so that they may recognize its 
folly or its dangers and' so secure its repeal, 
but he must none the less obey it until it is 
repealed. Any other course is anarchy. 

I hear that some modern thinkers would 
persuade you that if a law does not commend 
itself to your conscience, it is your duty to 
disobey it. This is a most dangerous doc- 
trine, on no account to be accepted. It is, 
of course, possible to put extreme cases 
where a man should obey his conscience 
rather than the law, but such cases are ex- 
tremely rare. The rule is that a man must 



LAW AND CONSCIENCE 59 

speak the truth, but casuists can always put 
cases where the rule must yield, as when bad 
news is concealed by falsehood from a very 
ill person for fear that the truth may cause 
the patient's death. One may in like manner 
imagine laws which a man would rather go 
to the stake than obey, but any advice 
founded on such imaginings is most un- 
sound. 

Conscience is an elastic term which may 
mean very different things to different men. 
One man will speak of conscience when he 
only means his dislike to a law which curtails 
his pernicious activities, or interferes with 
his convenience. One man thinks that his 
constitutional rights are invaded by a law 
which the majority of his fellow-citizens con- 
sider essential to public safety. If he resists 
he will put it on the ground that his con- 
science forbids obedience. A great many 
people of both sexes are confident that the 
customs laws are tyrannical and unjust in 
forcing them to pay duties on their pur- 



6o PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

chases abroad, and conscientiously feel 

bound to evade them. With exceptions so 

rare as to be negligible no citizen can refuse 

to obey the law and justify his disobedience 

by appealing to his conscience. He must 

yield to the will of the majority in this as in 

much else when he lives in a republic. There 

is much wisdom in the oft-repeated verse of 

John Trumbull, 

"No man e'er felt the halter draw 
With good opinion of the law." 

One of the greatest dangers which now 
confronts us is the growing tendency to ig- 
nore or disobey the law. There is a law- 
abiding instinct in every man of true Ameri- 
can stock, and it finds expression in the 
commonplaces of our speech. If a man is 
annoyed by some discourtesy of his neighbor, 
or by what seems a public abuse, he exclaims, 
"There ought to be a law against such 
things" ; while on the other side the offender, 
when brought to book, takes refuge in the 
remark, "Well, I guess there isn't any law 



MR. GOMPERS AND STRIKES 6i 

against it." Our legislatures every year are 
overwhelmed with demands for new laws, 
until the volume which contains the new 
legislation of a single year in one state far 
exceeds in size the volume which contains 
the legislation of Parliament for the whole 
British Empire. But notwithstanding this 
inborn sentiment, men in practice disobey 
the laws that they do not like, while insist- 
ing that their neighbors shall obey the laws 
which they do like, or, as Hudibras put it, 

"Compound for sins they are inclined to 
By damning those they have no mind to." 

Let me call your attention to conspicuous 
examples of dangerous lawlessless. Some 
months ago Mr. Gompers, the eminent 
leader of organized labor, said to a com- 
mittee of the United States Senate that if 
a law were passed making strikes by railroad 
employees illegal and punishable, he should 
not hesitate to defy the law. His statement 
probably defines the attitude of two or more 



62 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

millions of men, who practically can arrest 
the business of the United States, and thus 
presents a very serious question. No state 
can interfere with interstate commerce in 
any way, but these men claim a power which 
is denied to New York or Ohio, and which 
the people would never by law entrust to 
any one. 

If it is desired that there should be in 
every community men with power to arrest 
its business until some question between 
an employer and workmen is settled, should 
not that power be intrusted to public offi- 
cers.? Imagine the attempt of a legislature 
to frame a law giving to one or more persons 
such a power. The very idea is ridiculous, 
but if the attempt were made, would not the 
legislature guard such a power jealously.? 
Would it not insist on a clear statement of 
the question at issue, would it not provide 
for careful investigation and public hearing, 
before the power was exercised.? If such a 
law were passed, would not the men chosen 



STRIKES AND THE LAW 63 

to exercise the power be selected very care- 
fully? They would be chosen by the votes 
of the whole community to exercise powers 
which would affect gravely the whole com- 
munity. Do you not see that no such pow- 
ers would ever be given even to the most 
responsible men? Yet these powers are 
freely exercised to-day whenever they see fit 
by men who do not represent the public. 

A general strike by the railroad employees 
of the country would work more injury to 
the whole people than an invasion by a for- 
eign army. The movement of food and fuel 
essential to the lives of the citizens would 
be arrested, the workmen who go by rail to 
their work would at least be delayed, the 
machinery and supplies of all kinds which 
our factories require would soon fail, and 
no one knows how many men and women 
would be thrown out of employment. The 
children in the nursery, the sick in the hos- 
pital, every man, woman, and child in the 
country would suffer, the strikers would 



64 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

spend their substance, starvation, disease, 
and riot would beset the nation, and all be- 
cause some question of wages, hours, or 
accommodations, probably a question of 
arithmetic, had arisen upon which the rail- 
road managers and the labor unions could 
not agree. 

Salus populi suprema lex. Is it possible 
that the community is powerless to protect 
itself against such a calamity? The State 
may call millions of men into its military 
and naval service against their will by con- 
scription. For their service the conscripts 
are paid thirty dollars a month and are 
forced to encounter hardships and perils of 
life and limb which grow every day more 
serious. Once in the service disobedience of 
orders by any man, and of course by a com- 
bination of many to disobey, is mutiny, and 
may after trial by court-martial be punished 
by death. Yet a mutiny in the army would 
in all but very exceptional cases not seriously 
affect the mass of our people. The soldier 



COMBINATIONS AND THE LAW 65 

cannot strike because the laws made for the 
government of citizens in the miUtary ser- 
vice forbid. The Articles of War derive all 
their authority from laws made by Congress, 
and the soldier cannot claim any constitu- 
tional right to strike. 

Many things that a single man can do, a 
combination of men cannot do. A single 
manufacturer or merchant may raise the 
price of his goods at will. If, however, a 
combination of manufacturers is formed to 
prevent competition and enhance the price 
of goods, the law steps in and dissolves the 
combination, punishes its members as crimi- 
nals, and gives all parties injured a right to 
claim damages from them. 

The Constitution knows no classes of citi- 
zens, and their rights do not vary with their 
employment. If men cannot combine to 
raise the price of goods, it would seem that 
they cannot combine to raise the price of 
labor. Certainly the legislature which can 
prevent their combining to raise the price of 



66 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

service as soldiers can forbid their combin- 
ing to raise the price of other service even 
more important to the public. What is 
necessary to the safety of the people must 
be legal. 

But the argument does not end here. The 
avowed object of criminal law is the main- 
tenance of the public peace. If one citizen 
owes another money or has wronged him in 
any way, the injured party is not allowed to 
collect his debt or redress his injury by 
attacking the other in the public streets. 
This is not because the public cares for the 
wrongdoer, but because this method of 
asserting one's rights disturbs the peace. A 
burglar finds when indicted that he is 
charged with having done certain acts 
"against the peace of the Commonwealth." 
One who threatens violence to another is 
bound over by the court "to keep the peace," 
not to refrain from attacking his enemy. 

The various movements to prevent war by 
arbitration treaties or by a league of nations 



THE PUBLIC PEACE 67 

originate not so much in the desire to pre- 
vent war between the actual combatants as 
to prevent the disturbance of the world's 
peace and the inevitable injury to neutral 
countries. It has been found that no matter 
what nations are fighting, the whole world 
suffers and therefore statesmen try to avert 
that suffering. 

If nations and individuals cannot fight 
because their contests break the public peace, 
why should not the same rule be applied 
to disputes between bodies of citizens.^ 
A strike resulting from a dispute between 
the miners and the mine owners, between 
the railroad companies and their employees, 
between the manufacturers of a city like 
Lawrence or Fall River and their workmen, 
or between the longshoremen and the ship- 
owners in a city like New York which 
affects the commerce of the nation, disturbs 
the public peace almost infinitely more than 
a fight between two men on the street. The 
employees or others who are willing to work 



68 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

are beaten or blown up in their houses, 
destruction of property almost invariably 
occurs, and only the presence of troops pre- 
vents the most serious disorders. 

Nay, more, the strikes are aimed at the 
public. The strikers believe that by para- 
lyzing the business of the country or of a 
city and bringing the public face to face with 
starvation, cold, disease, and riot, they will 
force the public to bring such pressure upon 
the employers as will make them yield. 
They propose by injuring the public to win 
their battle, and, as in Boston by the police 
strike, they put the public to enormous ex- 
pense and loss. The striking policemen in 
Boston counted on so much disorder in the 
unprotected city that the frightened people 
would call them back. If they had sup- 
posed that there would be no increase in 
crime they would have known that such 
continued peace would only show that police 
were not needed. The policy of such strikers 
cannot be distinguished from that of a man 



THE RIGHTS OF THE PUBLIC 69 

who should break the windows of all his 
neighbors to make one of them pay a debt. 

Has not the public the right to protect 
itself against such injuries? The railroads, 
for example, are public highways. To con- 
struct them the public has given the builders 
the right of eminent domain. Grants of 
public land and loans of public money were 
made to build the transcontinental lines, and 
cities and towns helped lines which were 
built to serve them. They are engaged in 
interstate commerce which Congress has the 
right to regulate, a right which is exercised 
through the Interstate Commerce Commis- 
sion in fixing rates, and by Congress through 
such bills as the so-called Adamson bill. 
Can Congress control what one citizen must 
charge for transporting goods, and is it pow- 
erless to fix what another must charge for 
his work in carrying on such transportation ^ 

It is not necessary to go so far. Congress 
has the clear right to say that, as disputes 
between individuals must be settled by a 



70 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

court, so must disputes between bodies of 
citizens be determined. Questions of wages, 
hours, accommodations, privileges, and 
rights are no more difficult to decide than 
the very complicated and difficult questions 
involved in the public and private contro- 
versies which courts have always dealt with. 
Strikes such as Mr. Gompers proposes 
approach the dimensions and threaten the 
consequences of civil war, and the time has 
come when public or private war as a means 
of determining rights must be regarded as 
a relic of barbarism. If men cannot settle 
their own disputes, the State must settle 
them. This principle has been adopted by 
the legislature of Kansas, and so far the law 
has worked well. 

It is the duty of every good citizen to set 
his face against the lawlessness which is now 
preached by labor leaders and their sympa- 
thizers. Direct action, sabotage, syndical- 
ism, and the like are different names for 
criminal violence, and unless adequate laws 



CONSCIENCE AND THE LAW 71 

are passed and inflexibly enforced against 
them, the consequences to our civilization 
will be disastrous. When a man like Mr. 
Gompers, as the leader of perhaps millions 
of men, defies Congress and threatens civil 
war if it exercise its undoubted power in a 
way which he does not approve, he should be 
made to realize that his attitude is hardly to 
be distinguished from treason. 

I have dwelt at some length on the issue 
presented by Mr. Gompers because it is a 
clear illustration of the spirit which is 
abroad in the nation. He doubtless thinks 
that he would be obeying his conscience in 
disobeying the law which he was discussing. 
He would really be resisting the law because 
it deprived him of a weapon which he threat- 
ened to use in such a way as to injure the 
public. He wants to have the right so to 
use it, but he is not an authority on consti- 
tutional law, and he does not propose to let 
the courts decide whether or not he has the 
right which he claims. His threat is to defy 



72 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

the law and the legislature, and his attitude 
shows at once the danger of letting each 
man decide for himself what the law is, and 
the danger of confounding unreasonable or 
reasonable objections with conscientious 
scruples. 

But the labor leaders are not the only 
offenders. It was not long ago that the 
authorities in Arizona arrested a number 
of striking miners and carried them by rail- 
road into a neighboring state where they 
were deposited on a plain which was more or 
less a desert. It is clear that one state has 
no right to send its undesirable citizens into 
another state, and it is equally clear that the 
men thus banished were dealt with illegally 
and brutally. Such methods return to plague 
the inventors, and all methods of punishing 
citizens for anything they do except by pro- 
cess of law are indefensible. 

During the recent war mob violence was 
resorted to in order to make people buy Lib- 
erty bonds, or to prevent their discussing 



MOB VIOLENCE 73 

public questions in ways which the neigh- 
bors did not approve, just as recently certain 
military and other organizations have un- 
dertaken by violence to prevent Mr. Kreisler 
from playing at concerts. All such things 
are deplorable, and unless they are checked 
by public opinion, they demoralize the com- 
munities where they occur and many others, 
for bad examples are very contagious. Men 
of property and standing who take part in 
such lawless proceedings, or even by silence 
seem to approve them, are teaching the poor 
and ignorant portion of society a very dan- 
gerous lesson in destroying that respect for 
law which is the main protection of their 
own lives and property. What has happened 
in Russia may sooner or later threaten the 
United States, and when the danger arises, 
the surest bulwark against it is respect for 
law and lawful methods planted deep in the 
hearts of the people. 

Especially does this practice endanger the 
right of free speech. During the anti-slavery 



74 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

contest men like Garrison were mobbed, 
meetings were broken up, agitators like 
Lovejoy were killed, and the attempt was 
made to prevent by mob violence the ex- 
pression of unpopular truth. The right of 
free speech means the right to utter what 
men do not like to hear. No constitutional 
provision is needed to secure the right of 
any man to express popular views. The 
demagogue needs no protection against mob 
violence. He speaks what he knows the 
public likes, and suits his opinion to his 
audience. 

We are constantly told that the way to 
do away with any abuse is to educate the 
people, to make them realize what are the 
reasons against its continuance, and why 
reform is necessary. Popular education is 
impossible if the men who undertake the 
task are denied a hearing. No man who 
believes in a government like ours should 
for a moment tolerate any curtailment of 
a free press and free speech, because those 



IMPORTANCE OF FREE SPEECH 75 

rights are the corner-stones of republican 
government. We all know how intolerant 
one is tempted to be of foolish or intemper- 
ate words, or of mischievous propaganda, 
but violent repression is not the remedy. 
Passion does not distinguish between truth 
and error, and an excited mob cannot be 
trusted to tell which is which. Upon every 
citizen rests the duty of combating false 
views by speech if he can speak, by writing 
if he can write, by conversation and by ex- 
ample if he can do nothing more, and none 
the less must he uphold the right of the 
foolish speaker to express his foolish ideas. 
Otherwise he may find not only that his 
own wisdom may be counted foolishness by 
others, but that he is mobbed for teaching it. 
But there is lawless speech as well as law- 
less action. It is lawless because it is for- 
bidden by law, and the remedy is given by 
law. The transgressors should be arrested 
by the police, tried and punished as the law 
directs. This course protects the com- 



76 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

munity against incitement to riot, and 
protects the speaker in the exercise of his 
rights if his speecli was lawful, no matter 
how unpopular. Voters in a republic must 
learn to think clearly and whatever happens 
seek the redress which the law gives. 

There never was a time, perhaps, when it 
was more difficult to follow this course, but 
the Constitution is made for just such emer- 
gencies, and unless good citizens who re- 
spect the Constitution obey its mandates, 
how can we expect the men who threaten 
our peace to respect a constitution which 
does not protect their rights ? 

There is sound wisdom in the practice of 
the English authorities who allow men to 
speak freely in Hyde Park, for they realize 
that foolish speech produces little effect, and 
unless the authorities regard it, excites little 
attention, but all attempts at repression ad- 
vertise it, give it an undue importance, and 
create a sympathy for the speaker and prob- 
ably for his views which his own speech 



THE PROHIBITION AMENDMENT 77 

could never win. It was a marvelous ex- 
ample of this toleration when the self-styled 
vice-president of the Irish Republic was 
allowed to preach disloyalty to the Govern- 
ment of the British Empire to an audience 
of thousands in London. 

We are now face to face with a great con- 
test between law and lawlessness. The 
amendment to the Constitution which pro- 
hibits the manufacture and sale of spirits, 
wine, and beer, strikes at a well-nigh uni- 
versal taste, at the unbroken habits of cen- 
turies, at traditions embalmed in prose and 
poetry and associated in men's minds with 
much that is pleasantest in their lives. It 
invades what have seemed to be inalienable 
rights, it renders much property valueless, 
it calls upon us to change at once the cus- 
toms of a lifetime. I am not dealing with 
the question whether this legislation is wise 
or foolish. I am merely emphasizing the 
radical change which it makes in established 
habits, and its far-reaching effects. 



78 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

For many years in the states such laws 
have been passed, modified, repealed, and 
passed again as public opinion has veered 
between prohibition, license, local option, 
and other methods of dealing with a recog- 
nized evil. Experience has shown that ab- 
solute prohibition has never been enforced, 
and many have felt that the attempt to 
enforce it was unwise because, when any 
law is openly disregarded, all law is more or 
less brought into contempt. It is now pro- 
posed to attempt it in a much larger area, 
and to put the whole power of the nation 
behind the attempt. It is an experiment 
which strains the law-abiding spirit of our 
people to the utmost. 

We shall have an army of officers, na- 
tional and state, to ferret out offenders, to 
look for liquor, to enforce the laws. It is 
not a work for which men of the first class 
are likely to volunteer, and the opportunities 
for corruption will be unlimited. To the 
temptations which will be offered many 



ENFORCING PROHIBITION 79 

officials will yield, as they yield now in every 
large city. Many will sympathize with the 
drinkers, and will not find it in their hearts 
to expose them. A situation may well grow 
up in which the law will become ridiculous, 
and those appointed to enforce it merely use 
their power to blackmail those who break it. 
Experience has not proved that our people 
are incorruptible. Juries will be slow to 
convict, and from one end of the country to 
the other the would-be drinkers and their 
opponents will be pitted against each other 
in internecine warfare. 

No one familiar with the history of the 
attempt to control by law the universal de- 
sires and passions of men can fail to regard 
this experiment with grave forebodings. 
Very few believe that it is supported by pub- 
lic opinion, notwithstanding the ease with 
which the amendment was adopted by Con- 
gress and ratified by the states. No one who 
has considered the question can fail to rec- 
ognize the strength of the arguments in favor 



8o PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

of prohibition, whatever his opinion may be 
as to its wisdom, but it has ceased to be a 
question whether the amendment is wise 
or not. It is the law, and as such good citi- 
zens must support it, and in my judgment 
they will be wise if they support its spirit 
and not merely its letter. They must not 
set an example to those who would break 
the law. The experiment must be tried 
fairly. 

Some time ago in reading an article upon 
class feeling in England I was struck with 
the author's statement that the introduction 
of automobiles had contributed materially 
to increase the dislike of the general public 
for the moneyed classes. This feeling finds 
expression in such words as these which I 
take from the novel "John Ingleside," by 
Mr. Lucas: 

Socialism never had so powerful an ally as the 
motor car. The motor car is the most brutally vivid 
symbol of the callousness, the oppressiveness, and 
the luxury of the rich that was ever devised, and 



RICH AND POOR 8i 

every new motor car that is put on the road is 
another nail in the coffin of plutocracy. 

Most of you will remember the incident in 
"A Tale of Two Cities" when the child is 
killed by the coach horses of the marquis, 
and its consequence. 

We all know and at times share this feel- 
ing, and we even cannot help feeling a little 
insolent ourselves when we are in the car. 
If that seems too strong a statement, let me 
say that we at least share the pride of the 
fly on the coach wheel in the fable. Mr. 
Ford has done much to distribute the re- 
sponsibility of the motor driver, and so 
perhaps to modify the hatred of those who 
run cars, but on the other hand, the length- 
ening list of deaths from reckless driving 
steadily neutralizes his efforts. I allude to 
this feeling because prohibition presents a 
new danger of widening the breach between 
rich and poor. 

The law permits a man to keep in his own 
house and there use the fluids which cannot 



82 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

be made, sold, or transported. It is hard 
and perhaps useless to say that a man 
who has inherited or acquired a fine cellar 
shall refrain from using it, when the law 
allows him to do so, but it must be borne in 
mind that when rich and poor have the same 
taste, and the former can gratify it while the 
latter cannot, the contrast does not make for 
harmony, and to-day harmony between all 
classes of our people is needed as never be- 
fore. He who claims a right under the law 
must uphold the letter on which he relies, 
and do what he can to uphold the hands of 
those whose duty it is to enforce it. If ex- 
perience justifies our fears and proves the 
law bad, repeal will be hastened by vigorous 
enforcement. The privileges and luxuries 
of the rich are secured by law, and they of 
all men must be careful that it is not used 
to oppress the poor, or to emphasize invidi- 
ous distinctions. Do not flaunt wealth or its 
evidences in the faces of those who do not 
share it. 



THE ABUSE OF PATRONAGE 83 

The power to appoint the army of em- 
ployees which will be needed to enforce the 
law is in itself a dangerous thing. The 
abuse of patronage to perpetuate the power 
of a party or to insure the election of a 
candidate had become so flagrant forty years 
ago that the Civil Service Reform law was 
passed to protect the public against its own 
servants. Now the friends of patronage are 
gaining, and the Volstead law puts the men 
who will fill the offices that it creates outside 
the Civil Service law, so that they will be 
selected by tainted methods to do a work 
which only the most honest of men can be 
trusted to do, and an enormous control over 
voters is placed in the hands of the politi- 
cians who for the moment have the power of 
appointing or removing these officers. It 
may well be used to defeat the wishes of the 
people at a close election. 

This danger would be increased were the 
Government given the ownership and con- 
trol of public services which hitherto have 



84 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

belonged to private citizens. We are wit- 
nessing the results of such ownership. For 
years the railroads of the United States have 
been prosperous as a rule, and have yielded 
a large revenue to their owners. Their 
shares and bonds have been the favorite in- 
vestments of savings banks, life insurance 
companies, trustees for widows and orphans, 
and many individuals of small resources as 
well as of rich men. The fortunes of a 
great many people, depositors in savings 
banks and holders of life insurance policies, 
representatives of every class in the com- 
munity are dependent on their future. The 
Government of the United States thinking 
it necessary for public reasons assumed con- 
trol of them, and we are now witnessing the 
result in much increased expense and re- 
duced efficiency. 

The explanation is simple and the result- 
ing peril is clear. Governmental control is 
inevitably political control. The powers are. 
exercised by politicians anxious to keep their 



GOVERNMENT CONTROL 85 

party in power and to alienate no voters. 
The railroad employees are voters, well or- 
ganized and affiliated with other labor 
organizations. The private employer can 
discharge or discipline a negligent or un- 
faithful employee without running any per- 
sonal risk. The employee is more afraid of 
his action than he is of the Government, for 
he knows that the heads of the party in 
power will be slow to provoke a conflict with 
his union. Let now a close election approach 
and let the railroad employees say to the 
Government, "We must have higher wages 
and shorter hours or we shall strike, or vote 
for the opposite party." How do you think 
this threat would be met? It need not be 
made publicly ; it can easily be suggested in 
the right quarter and be very effectual. Nay, 
it need not be made or suggested at all. 
The party in control may feel that to avoid 
the possible loss of votes a raise in wages had 
better be made, and explained on grounds 
which it will be hard to dispute. I do not 



86 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

say that this has happened. I make no 
charge against any one, but I say that in the 
long run it is sure to happen, and that it is 
very dangerous to put into the hands . of 
poHticians the power over voters and the 
temptation to use it at pubHc expense, which 
government control of railroads inevitably 
creates. Such a relation between the Gov- 
ernment and a large army of workmen into 
which new recruits can constantly be mus- 
tered is dangerous. The railroad unions 
would become a new Pretorian Guard, a 
new body of Janissaries, and it is not difficult 
to see that the inevitable outcome would be 
disaster. The so-called Reds, whom the 
country now regards with suspicion, are not 
so dangerous as the labor unions might well 
become under such a system, with Mr. 
Gompers or a successor defying the law, and 
the country's peace or a party's power at 
stake. 

Nor does the case end here. The wages 
paid the railroad workers create a standard, 



ILAILROAD WORKERS AND WAGES 87 

and the power to fix these is the power to 
fix the wages of all wage-earners through- 
out the country. Our recent experience has 
shown us that when wages are raised in one 
employment, wages in others follow suit. 
What emperor ever had such power over his 
subjects as may be created under govern- 
ment ownership, and what burdens may not 
the citizen be compelled to bear ! And when 
to the power of fixing wages is added the 
power of increasing at pleasure the number 
of men employed, consider how likely it is 
that the pressure for employment will be 
resisted by the politicians in power. 

This is no imaginary danger. Let me 
quote the statement of facts made by Mr. 
Atterbury, the vice-president of the Penn- 
sylvania Railroad Company, long regarded 
as the best-managed of American railroad 
corporations : 

The Pennsylvania Railroad to-day has in its em- 
ploy 168,892 persons, as against 147,718 before we 
went into the war, or an increase of 14 per cent. At 



88 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

the same time the traffic units fell from 16,800,000,- 
000 to 15,000,000,000, or a reduction of 11 per cent 
in the business. Fourteen per cent more men did 
11 per cent less work. Or, expressing it in a little 
different way, it took 127 men in 1919 to do the 
work of 100 men in 1917. •«• 

What we manufacture is tonnage, and tonnage 
per man employed has fallen off, notwithstanding 
the continued introduction of heavy locomotives and 
other instruments of increased efficiency. The av- 
erage number of traffic units per employee has fallen 
from 113,932 to 89,308. 

In the early part of 1917 we were on a ten-hour 
basis. During 1919 we have been on an eight-hour 
basis, A 20 per cent reduction in time alone, had 
we worked with exactly the same effort that we did 
in 1917, would have moved in an eight-hour day 
91,145 units. As a matter of fact there were moved 
only 89,308 units. The advocates of the eight-hour 
day claimed an increase in efficiency. In reality 
the results prove just the opposite — that there has 
been a reduction in efficiency. 

Prior to our entrance into the war the men were 
on a piece-work basis, as well as working on a ten- 
hour day. When the government took over our rail- 
road piece-work was stopped. The output per man 
per hour fell from 100 per cent to 75 per cent. The 
shops were put on an eight-hour basis. This cut the 
output an additional 15 per cent, so that the output 
per man per day in our shops is but 60 per cent of 



GOVERNMENT AND RAILROADS 89 

what it was before we entered the war. In other 
words, it takes ten men to-day to do what six men 
did before the war. 

What is the pecuniary result? Instead of 
a profit large enough to pay dividends on 
most of the railroads, the loss of the Govern- 
ment in twenty-three months is $548,000,- 
000, though the rates have been increased 
some thirty per cent and the business done 
has increased enormously. The November 
revenues showed an increase of $149,200,000 
as compared with the average for the month 
in the three-year test period before the war 
by which the compensation for the use of 
the roads to be paid by the Government was 
fixed, but expenses and taxes have increased 
more than $213,000,000. This is ruinous 
business, and is due in large part to the 
causes which Mr. Atterbury points out, in- 
crease of wages, increase of men employed, 
and decreased efficiency. If they do these 
things in the green tree, what shall be done 
in the dry .'* 



90 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

It is not merely on economic grounds, but 
to save the Government itself, that the dis- 
position to place the control of men's tastes 
and business in the hands of men elected on 
political grounds should be resisted. The 
dangers may not be recognized now, but the 
prudent man looks ahead, and need not be 
exceptionally wise to realize what threatens. 
It is because human nature is weak that we 
all pray, "Lead us not into temptation." 

I have dealt with the more conspicuous 
instances of disregard for the law, and there 
is another which I shall treat in my next 
lecture, but everywhere in our daily life, if 
we look we can see how little the law is 
respected. We have careful statutes in re- 
gard to automobiles, their lights and their 
speed, and the care with which they must be 
operated, but how little are they respected, 
and how rarely is any breach of the law 
punished. Some years ago a magistrate 
whose duty it was to enforce the law, but 
who was himself the owner of an automobile 



DISREGARD FOR THE LAW 91 

said to me, "No man would drive a motor 
car if he could not violate the law." Vio- 
lations put all our lives in jeopardy and 
make the use of the public highways dan- 
gerous both for those who are in and those 
who are out of these cars, but none the less 
the community does not disturb itself, and 
the combined force of dealers and owners 
prevents proper legislation, and proper en- 
forcement of such laws as are made. 

Some time ago I spent several summers in 
Germany and saw cherry-trees loaded with 
fruit standing by the side of the streets un- 
protected by any fence, but absolutely free 
from depredation, as free as if there were a 
policeman and a dog at the foot of each tree, 
but near any of our large cities gardens and 
orchards are constantly raided, and if the 
trespassers are caught, the lower courts, 
from mistaken sympathy, fail to impose any 
adequate punishment; and as a result we 
find the cultivation of fruits and vegetables 
abandoned because the cultivator wishes to 



92 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

feel that he can enjoy the crops which his 
labor has created, and if he cannot he will 
not work for the benefit of thieves. Unpun- 
ished theft sets an example and produces 
disrespect for the law, and it would be better 
for us all if examples were made of those 
who steal fruit, and who if unpunished may 
become more dangerous malefactors. I 
could give you many more illustrations of 
lawlessness, but I must leave some open for 
your memory and imagination. These are 
only a few out of many examples. 

Lawlessness has other avenues of attack 
upon constituted authority. Nothing can 
overthrow the law so completely as the over- 
throw of the courts. We must all agree that 
the best way of settling disputes between 
men or nations is by submitting the question 
at issue to some court or board of arbitration 
composed of men as impartial as the lot of 
humanity will permit. Experience has 
shown that the better course is to establish 
a tribunal fitted to deal with all disputes. 



IMPARTIAL COURTS ESSENTIAL 93 

rather than to wait until the question arises 
and then endeavor to create a special tri- 
bunal to deal with that case. It is inevitable 
that when the parties to a dispute seek to 
agree upon those who are to judge between 
them, each side will try to get judges who by 
disposition or supposed sympathies will be 
likely to support its view, and thus decide 
the case. Each side inevitably suspects the 
choice of the other in selecting the judges, 
and there is too much room for jockeying. 
The court should be constituted of able, im- 
partial, trained men, fit to deal with any 
disputed question, and should await the 
case. 

All who are familiar with courts must 
agree that the judges should be removed 
from all influences likely to affect their de- 
cision, that they should hear the arguments 
of the parties and reach their conclusion 
deliberately. The traditional figure of Jus- 
tice is made blindfold to indicate that she 
must not see the contestants, but only hear 



94 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

the case and decide, not knowing the parties 
and dealing equal justice to rich and poor, 
friend and enemy. 

Within ten years dissatisfaction with the 
judgments of courts has led the defeated 
parties to urge that judges be taken from the 
bench by popular vote, or at least that an 
appeal to the people should lie from their 
decisions. The recall of judges and the re- 
call of decisions each has its advocates, and 
the last is urged as an easy way of amending 
a constitution. Recent experience would 
lead us to believe that amending the consti- 
tution is made easy enough, but at any rate 
existing methods give time for thought and 
argument. In dealing with either proposed 
recall it is well to remember that neither 
remedy is likely to be invoked save in cases 
of great public interest where some question 
as to the constitutionality of law is involved. 

We must not lose sight of the fact that 
constitutions are made to protect the people 
against the tyranny of officials, or to protect 



DANGERS OF THE RECALL 95 

the rights of the minority or the individual 
against the tyranny of the majority. If now 
a decision which accompUshes this purpose 
and protects the rights of a minority can by 
any process be submitted to a popular vote 
and reversed if a majority so decides, the 
whole object of the constitution is defeated, 
and men's rights, property, and lives are at 
the mercy of the majority, which at the 
moment may be as passionate, as preju- 
diced, as hysterical as was the Parisian mob 
in 1790. Any such system substitutes popu- 
lar clamor for deliberate judgment, and the 
feeling of the moment for those settled prin- 
ciples upon which civilized government must 
rest. It is an appeal from the court to the 
mob. 

The recall of judges strikes at that se- 
curity which is essential to justice. If a 
judge is made to feel that an unpopular de- 
cision may cost him his seat on the bench, 
leave him and his family without the means 
of support at a time of life when he will find 



96 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

it hard to make a living, two things must 
result. Strong men will decline to become 
judges if they must decide not as their judg- 
ment and conscience dictate, but as the pop- 
ular feeling demands on pain of losing their 
positions, and weak men will follow the pub- 
lic demand at the expense of justice. Either 
form of recall strikes at the very root of our 
judicial system, and establishes lawlessness 
on the bench. Every good citizen must 
realize that upon good judges the law de- 
pends. We want high character, sound 
judgment, courage, conscience, and ability. 
Weak or incompetent courts bring the law 
and its processes into contempt. When a 
man who accepts a judgeship must take the 
vow of poverty and deny his family the op- 
portunities which he could give them if he 
did not take it, the Bench must suffer. 
These are obvious truths, but the law suffers 
because the public refuses to recognize them. 
The people of the United States need the 
best courts that the country can give, and 



AN ELECTIVE JUDICIARY 97 

they cannot afford poor courts. The decisions 
of our judges affect the whole scope and 
power of the Government and deal with vital 
questions. The position of judge should be 
made attractive to the best men in the coun- 
try, and the office should seek the man. We 
cannot get such men as we need unless we 
offer fair compensation and assure them 
against any influences which will tend to 
destroy their absolute independence. 

Men contrast an appointed with an elect- 
ive judiciary, but there is no elective judici- 
ary. All judges are appointed, possibly by 
some group of political leaders in return for 
the contribution to the campaign fund of a 
sum equal to a year's salary, as was once the 
practice in New York, possibly by a com- 
mittee of lawyers, but the people as a whole 
cannot select intelligently. It is better to 
have the appointment made openly by a 
governor who must bear the responsibility 
for a bad choice than by an irresponsible 
man or knot of men acting in secret. The 



98 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

elected judge knows that sooner or later he 
must come again to the polls, and that an 
unpopular decision may cost him his place. 
Can there be any doubt as to the effect of 
that knowledge on his independence? 

We must return to the ideals of our 
fathers and insist that this shall be "a gov- 
ernment of laws, and not of men." The vio- 
lent invasion of every man's rights by his 
neighbor can be prevented in any com- 
munity only by force or by law. Our whole 
fabric of civilization rests upon the law. It 
is the framework of our political edifice, 
which is kept in place by the respect for the 
law which is felt by the community as a 
whole. When that is gone, when men no 
longer obey the law voluntarily because it is 
the law, there is no alternative but force, 
which, wielded by a just and temperate man 
to-day, may to-morrow fall into the hands 
of a tyrant or a sot. It was a short journey 
from Augustus to Nero. In the words of 
Chatham: "Where law ends tyranny be- 



DUTY TO MAINTAIN THE LAW 99 

gins." Lawlessness opens the door of the 
State to the dictator. It always has in 
human history, and it always will. 

Let me reinforce my statement by the 
authority of Elihu Root who says : 

One of tlie reasons for the conditions that exist 
at the present time is the intellectual and moral 
failure to understand that the law must be observed. 
. . . We know that we cannot give free opportunity 
for very good and well-intentioned people without 
giving the same opportunity to those who would ex- 
ercise a grinding, grasping, despotic power. There 
can be no guarantee of security unless we have a 
government of laws, and not of men; unless the 
dictates of the impulse of the moment conform to 
the rules of law and order. We know that the guid- 
ance of all, good as well as bad, in accordance with 
the principles of the law, is essential to the main- 
tenance of peace and order and the attainment of 
prosperity. 

We have never seen the time when unconsciously 
the people of the country ignored that truth to so 
great an extent as at present. 

What is our duty.? First and always to 
maintain the law; to teach respect for it by 
speech and by example, in public and in 
private, and to condemn its violation when- 



100 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

ever and by whomsoever committed. I 

cannot urge this so well as in the words of 

Lincoln, uttered in 1837: 

Let reverence for the law be breathed by every 
American mother to the babe that prattles on her 
lap; let it be taught in schools and colleges, let it 
be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legisla- 
tive halls and enforced in courts of justice. And, in 
short, let it become the political religion of the na- 
tion, and let the old and the young, the rich and the 
poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues 
and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon 
its altars. 

If law is to be respected, it must be re- 
spectable. We must purify its source. The 
law which a majority of the legislature hon- 
estly approves rests upon a sure foundation. 
It is the will of the people expressed by their 
representatives, and they will respect it as 
such. The law, which is bought by money, 
patronage, or other improper influence, is no 
law, but a fraud, and the people not only 
will not respect it, but they lose their respect 
for all law. Men fight fire with fire, and 
either try to buy laws for themselves, or, 



MAKING LAW RESPECTABLE loi 

unable to do this, disregard the statute when 
their convenience dictates, and so make a 
law for themselves, thus beginning, to quote 
again from Mr. Roosevelt, "the substitution 
for our civilization of a system in which 
there shall be violent alternations of anarchy 
and tyranny," both of which are equally 
fatal to liberty. Just laws enacted by honest 
men command respect and execute them- 
selves, but laws which are made to favor an 
individual or a class unjustly, and are paid 
for by patronage or cash, whether paid to 
the legislator or the campaign fund of his 
party, rest upon injustice and corruption 
and infect the whole body politic. 
Herbert Spencer said in 1882 : 

Free institutions can be maintained only by citi- 
zens, each of whom is instant to oppose every 
illegitimate act, every official excess of power, how- 
ever trivial it may seem. . . . All these lapses from 
higher to lower forms begin in trifling ways and 
it is only by incessant watchfulness that they can be 
prevented. 

We must all enlist in defence of the law, 



102 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

lest we learn too late that there is a law 
which no nation and no man can violate 
with impunity, that universal law by which 
ruin waits upon corruption, and which was 
written for all time in the stern sentence: 
"The wages of sin is death." 



RACE PREJUDICE 

In my last lecture, while discussing the im- 
portance of obeying the law and giving in- 
stances of lawlessness, I said that there was 
another conspicuous instance. I propose 
now to speak of that, as it is an example of 
the race and class prejudice which is a fruit- 
ful source of danger to this country. The 
true principle on which government by the 
people should rest is expressed in the phrase, 
"Each for all and all for each." The enlight- 
ened citizen should learn to put himself in 
his neighbor's place, see with his eyes, and 
thus instructed consider what is good for his 
neighbor's interest as well as for his own. 
Any other course is blind selfishness. 

The prospects of peace and prosperity all 
over the world are clouded by injustice aris- 
ing from racial and class antipathies, and in 
our own country the former is intensified by 
the prejudice of color, a legacy from the days 



104 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

when negro slavery existed in this country. 
Let me deal with this first. 

The census of 1800 showed that the popu- 
lation of the United States was 5,308,433 
persons of whom nearly one-fifth were negro 
slaves. In 1860 the slave population in the 
nine seceding states was about 3,500,000 out 
of 9,000,000, and taking the other slave 
states the total slave population was about 
4,000,000. To-day we roughly estimate the 
negro population of the country at about 
twelve millions. 

These twelve millions of people are citizens 
of the United States, entitled under the Con- 
stitution to every right which any white 
citizen enjoys, and by the Fifteenth Amend- 
ment protected in their right to vote, against 
any discrimination founded on race, color, 
or previous condition of servitude. They are 
called upon to perform every duty of a citi- 
zen, to pay taxes, to serve in the army, to 
hold their property subject to the right of 
eminent domain. Four hundred and seven- 



LOYALTY OF THE NEGROES 105 

teen thousand of them were drafted into our 
armies, and, in the words of Secretary 
Daniels, "more than two hundred thousand 
negroes went across the sea to fight, not a 
few of them to seal their devotion with their 
blood, and many to win decorations for their 
fine fighting qualities and faithful services." 
When "a zealous gentleman" assured the 
Secretary that Prussian spies were to 
organize a negro division of treason, the 
Secretary replied by assuring him "that 
though here and there he might find a traitor 
among the American negroes he might give 
himself no trouble, for I knew that the 
negroes could neither be cajoled nor threat- 
ened nor bought to enter a conspiracy to 
injure this country." Of what other ele- 
ment in our population can we be equally 
sure, remembering as we must Benedict 
Arnold and Aaron Burr, to say nothing of 
the many whose machinations wrought us 
great harm during the war which is just 
ended. What race in the world, treated as 



io6 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

we treat the negroes, would be as loyal to 
their oppressors ? 

Secretary Daniels was speaking in favor of 
erecting a monument at Washington to com- 
memorate the services of our colored soldiers 
in the war, but the negroes of this country 
are entitled to a far better reward — the 
recognition of their rights as men and as 
citizens wherever the flag floats for which 
they fought. 

No greater dangers threaten us to-day 
than those which arise from the treatment 
of the negroes all over this country, especially 
in the former slave states. Bred in the bone 
of the whites who were born in those states is 
the conviction that the negroes are their in- 
feriors, intended by nature to be their serv- 
ants, and that they must never be allowed to 
escape from that subordinate position. Hence 
they are denied justice in the courts ; they are 
killed with impunity ; if charged with crime 
or frequently with some trifling offence they 
are lynched and often with hideous cruelty, 



NEGLECT OF NEGRO EDUCATION 107 

while no attempt is made to prosecute and 
punish the lynchers. 

In most of the Southern States no ade- 
quate provision for their education is even 
attempted. They are denied the right to 
vote, they are driven to live in wretched 
houses and amid unsanitary conditions, and 
in large parts of the South they are regularly 
cheated and practically reduced to slavery. 

This is a terrible indictment. Let me prove 
it by Southern witnesses. 

Says the "Atlanta Constitution" : 

We must be fair to the Negro. There Is no use 
in beating about the bush. We have not shown 
this fairness in the past, nor are we showing It to- 
day, either In justice before the laws, in facilities 
afforded for education, or In other directions. 

Some years ago a Mississippi lawyer ad- 
dressing the Bar Association of that state 
said: 

A Negro accused of a crime during the days of 
slavery was dealt with more justly than he is to- 
day, ... It is next to an impossibility to convict 
even upon the strongest evidence any white man of 



io8 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

a crime of violence upon the person of a Negro, . . . 
and the converse is equally true that it is next to 
an impossibility to acquit a Negro of any crime of 
violence, where a white man is concerned; 

and well did he add : 

We cannot either as individuals, as a country, as 
a state, or as a nation continue to mete out one kind 
of criminal justice to a poor man, a friendless man, 
or a man of a different race, and another kind of 
justice to a rich man, an influential man, or a man 
of our own race without reaping the consequences. 

From the "Vicksburg Herald" come these 
words : 

The Herald looks with no favor upon drafting 
Southern Negroes at all, believing they should be 
exempt in toto because they do not equally "share 
in the benefits of government." To say that they 
do is to take issue with the palpable truth. "Taxa- 
tion without representation," the war-cry of the 
Revolutionary wrong against Great Britain, was not 
half so plain a wrong as requiring military service 
from a class that is denied suffrage and which lives 
under such discriminations of inferiority as the "Jim 
Crow" law and inferior school equipment and ser- 
vice. 

If we ask what is done for education, the 
report of a careful investigation published by 



NEGLECT OF NEGRO EDUCATION 109 

the Bureau of Education in the Department 
of the Interior is melancholy reading. It 
gives the facts as to the sixteen Southern 
States, the District of Columbia and Mis- 
souri, in which the population contains a 
considerable proportion of negroes, and 
states that in fifteen states and the District 
of Columbia "for which salaries by race 
could be obtained," the figures showed an 
expenditure of $10.32 for each white child 
and $2.89 for each colored child." 

The results may be imagined, and we can- 
not be surprised at the testimony which the 
same report gives from competent witnesses. 
I quote : 

The supervisor of white elementary rural schools 
in one of the states recently wrote concerning the 
negro schools: 

I never visit one of these schools without feeling 
that we are wasting a large part of this money and 
are neglecting a great opportunity. The negro 
schoolhouses are miserable beyond all description. 
They are usually without comfort, equipment, 
proper lighting, or sanitation. Nearly all of the 
negroes of school age in the district are crowded into 



no PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

these miserable structures during the short term 
which the school runs. Most of the teachers are 
absolutely untrained and have been given certificates 
by the county board, not because they have passed 
the examination, but because it is necessary to have 
some kind of a negro teacher. Among the negro 
rural schools which I have visited, I have found only 
one in which the highest class knew the multiplica- 
tion table. 

A State superintendent writes : 

There has never been any serious attempts in this 
state to offer adequate educational facilities for the 
colored race. The average length of the term for 
the state is only four months; practically all of the 
schools are taught in dilapidated churches, which, of 
course, are not equipped with suitable desks, black- 
boards, and the other essentials of a school; prac- 
tically all of the teachers are incompetent, possessing 
little or no education and having had no professional 
training whatever, except a few weeks obtained in 
the summer schools; the schools are generally over- 
crowded, some of them having as many as 100 
students to the teacher; no attempt is made to do 
more than teach the children to read, write, and 
figure, and these subjects are learned very Imper- 
fectly. 

This denial of education to so large a part 
of our population not only injures them. It 



NEGLECT OF NEGRO EDUCATION iii 

injures us all, as disease in one member in- 
fects the whole body. Ignorance brutalizes a 
people, and an ignorant and brutal element 
in society is a menace to the whole com- 
munity. Unless the existing conditions are 
remedied the negroes will leave the South, 
and the result is well stated by the Southern 
University Race Commission in these words : 

The inadequate provision for the education of 
the negro is more than an injustice to him; it is an 
injury to the white man. The South cannot realize 
its destiny if one-third of its population is undevel- 
oped and inefficient. For our common welfare we 
must strive to cure disease wherever we find it, 
strengthen whatever is weak, and develop all that is 
undeveloped. The initial steps for increasing the 
efficiency and usefulness of the negro race must 
necessarily be taken in the schoolroom. 

The "Report on Negro Education" puts it 
more briefly thus: 

However much the white and black millions may 
differ, however serious may be the problems of 
sanitation and education developed by the negroes, 
the economic future of the South depends upon the 
adequate training of the black as well as the white 
workman of that section. The fertile soil, the mag- 



112 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

nificent forests, the extensive mineral resources, and 
the unharnessed waterfalls are awaiting the trained 
mind and the skilled hand of both the white man 
and the black man. 

There is no answer to the question which 
Carl Schurz put to the Southern States, 

How can you expect to succeed In competition 
with neighboring communities if it Is your policy to 
keep your laborers ignorant and degraded when it is 
their policy to educate and elevate theirs? 

What is the evidence as to lynching? A 
gentleman writing to the "Manufacturers' 
Record" from a town in Georgia says : 

There have been lynched something like 4000 
men, women, and children since 1882. . . . There 
have not been fifteen convictions out of these thou- 
sands of lynchers. 

I quote the following statement from Rt. 
Rev. Thomas F. Gailor, Episcopal Bishop of 
Tennessee, a Southern white man, who wrote 
in the "Nashville Banner" : 

I realize that it Is futile to attempt by any writ- 
ten word to stem the tide of what seems to be the 
popular will; but a man can, at least, declare his 
abhorrence of such atrocities. 



LYNCHING AND ITS HORRORS 113 

This kind of lynching seems to be becoming epi- 
demic in our State. About two years ago a negro 
from Fayette County was lynched most barbarously 
near Memphis, and parts of his body, according to 
the newspapers, carried away as souvenirs. Many 
citizens of Memphis protested, but they were ig- 
nored. Last winter a negro man near Memphis was 
burned at the stake, gasoline was poured over his 
itody, and his head was cut off and taken through the 
city streets as a trophy. Last fall a negro was 
burned to death in Dyersburg, and thousands of 
white people stood by and gloated over his agonies. 
And now, at Estill Springs, we have another burning, 
where the white men in charge first tortured the 
miserable creature with a red-hot iron, "to break his 
will," while the victim, already shot nearly to death, 
with one eye hanging out, screamed for mercy, and 
a thousand white men, with hundreds of women and 
children, looked on and were not ashamed. 

The "Memphis News-Scimitar" describes 

the Dyersburg lynching which took place on 

Sunday morning in the public square of the 

county seat with a population of 7,500 

people : 

Not a domino hid a face, every one was un- 
masked. Leaders were designated and assigned 
their parts. Long before the mob reached the city 
the public square was choked with humanity. All 



114 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

waited patiently. Women, with babies, made them- 
selves comfortable. 

At last the irons were hot. 

A red streak shot out; a poker in a brawny hand 
was boring out one of the negro's eyes. The negro 
bore the ordeal with courage, only low moans es- 
caping him. Another poker was working like an 
auger on the other orbit. 

Swish. Once, twice, three times a red-hot Iron 
dug gaping places in Lation Scott's back and sides. 

"Fetch a hotter one," somebody said. The exe- 
cution went on. 

Women scarcely changed countenance as the 
negro's back was ironed with the hot brands. Even 
the executioners maintained their poise in the face 
of bloody creases left by the irons — irons which 
some housewife had been using. 

Three and a half hours were required to complete 
the execution. 

These details are revolting, and you may 
ask me why I harrow you by reciting them. 
Because unless the hideous horror of the 
disease is brought home to you, you will not 
rouse yourselves to find the remedy. 

The latest reports as given by Dr. Moton, 
the president of Tuskegee, show that eighty- 
two lynchings occurred in 1919, eighteen 



LYNCHING AND ITS HORRORS 115 

more than In the previous year. Seven of the 
victims were burned to death. Among the 
offences for which men were lynched were 
"alleged incendiary talk," "writing improper 
letters," "murder sentence changed to life 
imprisonment," "killing a man in self- 
defence," "remarks about Chicago race 
riot," "making boastful remarks," and the 
like. Less than a quarter were charged with 
rape or attempted rape. 

Let me meet directly the assertion that 
lynching is necessary to protect the women 
of the South from attacks by negroes. What 
are the facts ? We must first remember that 
during the Civil War the men of the South 
left their women and children in the care of 
the negroes whom they were fighting to hold 
as slaves. Had the negroes showed any wish 
to abuse their power the Southern armies 
would have disbanded, but during the whole 
four years not one negro betrayed the trust 
reposed in him by his master. The women 
of the South were safe while the negroes 



ii6 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

raised the corn and pork which fed the 
Southern armies. As a Southern friend said 
to me, with tears in his eyes, "There never 
was a better race than the negroes !" Surely 
never in history has there been an instance 
where the oppressed so treated the oppressor. 
This record proves that the negroes are not a 
brutal and licentious people. The figures 
fully sustain the statement of Dr. Scroggs, of 
the Louisiana State University, who says : 

Not only is lynching no preventive of crimes 
against women, but statistics prove that only one 
time in four are such crimes the cause of lynching. 
In 1915 only sixteen per cent of the persons lynched 
were charged with crimes against womanhood. 

I have emphasized the word "charged," for 
a charge is easily made and often falsely, as 
figures abundantly prove. In court the man 
who is charged is presumed to be innocent. 
To the mob the charge is proof of guilt. 

In support of this statement let me give 
the following from Mr. James Weldon John- 
son: 



STATISTICS OF LYNCHING 117 

In the twenty years down to 1903 there were 
1985 negroes lynched in the Southern States. Of 
that number rape was assigned as the cause in only 
675 cases. In 1310 cases other causes were assigned. 

In the past thirty years fifty negro women have 
been lynched. In the past twelve months five negro 
women have been lynched. 

In the five-year period, 1914-1918, 264 negroes 
were lynched in the United States, exclusive of those 
killed at East St. Louis, and out of this number rape 
was assigned as the cause in only 28 cases. 

Contrast these records, bad as they may appear, 
with the records for New York County, which is 
only a part of New York City, and we find that in 
this one county, in the single year of 1917, 230 per- 
sons were indicted for rape by the Grand Jury. 
Of this number 37 were indicted for rape in the first 
degree. That is, in just a part of New York City, 
the number of persons indicted for rape in the first 
degree was nine more than the total number of 
negroes lynched on the charge of rape in the entire 
United States during the period 1914-1918. Among 
these 37 persons indicted by the New York County 
Grand Jury there was not a single negro. The 
evidence required by the Grand Jury of New York 
County to indict a person charged with rape must 
be more conclusive than the evidence required by a 
mob to lynch a negro accused of rape. 

When the Congressional Committee on Immigra- 
tion in 1911 made its study of crime in the United 



ii8 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

States, an investigation was made of 2262 cases in 
the New York Court of General Sessions and in that 
investigation it was found that the percentage for 
the crime of rape was lower for the negro than for 
either the foreign-born or native-born whites. The 
actual figures were, for foreign-born whites, 1.8; 
for native-born whites, .8; and for negroes, .5. 

The women of New York are as much en- 
titled to protection as the women of the 
South, but no man is lynched for rape in New 
York. 

Such figures abundantly confirm the 
statement of Henry Watterson : 

Lynching should not be misconstrued. It is not 
an effort to punish crime. It is a sport which has 
as its excuse the fact that a crime, of greater or less 
gravity, has been committed or is alleged. A lynch- 
ing party rarely is made up of citizens indignant at 
the law's delays or failures. It often is made up of a 
mob bent upon diversion, and proceeding in a mood 
of rather frolicsome ferocity, to have a thoroughly 
good time. Lynchers are not persons who strive 
from day to day toward social betterment. Neither 
are they always drunken ruffians. Oftentimes they 
are ruffians wholly sober in so far as alcoholic in- 
dulgence is concerned, but highly stimulated by an 
opportunity to indulge in spectacular murder when 



THE SHARE-CROPPING SYSTEM 119 

there is no fear that the next grand jury will return 
murder indictments against them. 

The recent outbreak in Arkansas grew out 
of the "share-cropping" system thus de- 
scribed by a writer in the "Nation" : 

Theoretically, under the system the owner fur- 
nishes the land, the share-cropper the labor, and at 
the end of the year the crop is divided share and 
share alike. From the share-cropper's portion is 
deducted the amount received by him in supplies 
during the year, in most cases these supplies being 
"taken up" either at a plantation store or commis- 
sary, or from a merchant designated by the owner or 
his agent. In practice the system for the past fifty 
years has worked out in such manner that the crop, 
when gathered, is taken by the landowner and sold 
by him, and settlement is made with the share- 
cropper whenever and at whatever terms the land- 
owner chooses to give. Instead of an itemized 
statement of the supplies received, in most cases 
only a statement of the total is given. Since there 
is an unwritten law which is rigidly observed that 
no negro can leave a plantation until his debt is paid, 
the owner, by padding the accounts of negroes to 
the point where the "balance due" always exceeds 
the value of the crop, can assure his labor supply for 
the following year. 



I20 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

Of this system, W. T. B. Williams says in a 
report of the United States Department of Labor 
on "Negro Migration in 1916-17," published in 
1919: "Many of the negro tenants feel that it 
makes little difference what part of the crop is 
promised them, the white man gets it all anyway." 
Of the plan of many owners of taking all of the 
cotton seed, the "Charlotte Observer" says: "If, 
as It is represented, it is the custom of the farmers 
not to divide the cotton seed with the negro tenant, 
then a hitherto undiscussed cause of grievance Is 
brought to light and reveals an injustice to the negro 
that no landowner can defend." An average bale of 
cotton weighs five hundred pounds, the price at this 
writing being about forty-three cents per pound. 
For every bale there Is about one-half-ton seed, 
which brings between ^68 and ^70 per ton. 

A white Southerner writing In the "Memphis 
Commercial Appeal" of January 26, 1919, frankly 
states : 

"In certain parts of the South men who consider 
themselves men of honor and would exact a bloody 
expiation of one Avho should characterize them as 
common cheats do not hesitate to boast that they 
rob the negroes by purchasing their cotton at prices 
that are larcenous, by selling goods to them at ex- 
tortionate figures and even by padding their 
accounts with a view of keeping them always In 
debt. Men of this stripe have been known to la- 
ment that In the last two years the negroes have 



SUPPRESSION OF NEGRO VOTE 121 

been so prosperous that It has not been possible to 
filch from them all they make. 

"A protest from a negro against tactics of this 
kind is met with a threat of force. Justice at the 
hands of a white jury in sections where this practice 
obtains is inconceivable. Even an attempt to carry 
the matter into the courts is usually provocative of 
violence. 

"While the conditions described are not universal, 
they are typical, especially in the deha regions where 
large plantations prevail. If they are to be reme- 
died, we of the South must clear our minds of cant 
and realize that they do exist." 

So far as the right to vote is concerned, no 
one questions that in the South this right is 
denied to the negroes with insignificant ex- 
ceptions. This fact is not only admitted, but 
the exclusion has been justified for years. 
Yet while those who are responsible for this 
deny that the negroes are fit to vote, they 
insist none the less that they shall be 
counted as voters, with the result that the 
negroes swell the basis of representation 
while the whites cast their own votes and the 
votes of the negroes also. The Solid South is 



122 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

the result and exists to maintain this situa- 
tion. Let me give you some figures. 

The Presidential election of 1916 stirred 
the country deeply, and we may take the vote 
cast then to illustrate my point. Louisiana, 
Kansas, and Mississippi are each entitled to 
eight representatives in Congress, and must 
have therefore nearly equal populations. 
Ignoring the votes of the small parties, the 
people of Kansas cast 592,246 votes, the 
people of Louisiana 86,341 votes, the people 
of Mississippi 84,675. More than half the 
people of the latter state are colored, and the 
proportion is nearly as large in Louisiana. 
South Carolina with seven representatives 
cast 63,396 votes; Arkansas with the same 
representation 160,296; while Connecticut 
with only five representatives cast 206,300. 
About 9000 votes elected a representative 
from South Carolina. A few more than 
10,000 chose one in Louisiana and Missis- 
sippi, if all the votes were cast for the win- 
ning candidates, and as only 1550 Republi- 



THE SOLID SOUTH 123 

can votes were cast in South Carolina, 4253 
in Mississippi, and 6466 in Louisiana, they 
do not seriously affect my point. In Kansas 
about 74,030 persons on an average voted for 
each representative, and the delegation was 
divided, three Republicans and five Demo- 
crats. Similar comparisons might be made 
between other states with like results. 

This is a situation which cannot and must 
not last. The negro citizens of this country 
since 1865 have acquired property, educa- 
tion, and what goes with these, self-respect. 
They have achieved success in business and 
in all the professions ; they have banks, in- 
surance companies, factories of their own, 
and in large parts of the country they live 
side by side with their white neighbors en- 
joying the same rights in every respect. It is 
impossible to keep them down. This is their 
country as much as it is ours, their ancestors 
have lived here longer than the ancestors of 
very many white citizens, and they are en- 
titled to their full share of all that the 



124 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

country can give to its citizens. Until their 
rights are recognized and granted without 
reservation, they will not be content, and 
friction between them and those who would 
keep them down cannot fail to increase. 
They will not be silent, they will protest, and 
their resistance to injustice will grow with 
their growth. In the words of Garrison, 
"They will not retreat a single inch and they 
will be heard!" 

Men say that their appeals for justice in 
their newspapers are the cause of the feeling 
between the races, and unless these are 
stopped the consequences will be disastrous. 
As well say that the groans of a sufferer are 
the cause of his pain. While he continues to 
suffer he will not cease to cry out, and you 
must cure the pain, not gag the patient. It 
would be a much worse sign if the negroes 
submitted to wrong without protest. They 
will be recognized as men while they act and 
speak as men. Give them justice and their 
complaints will cease. Continue to deny it 



SOUTHERN TESTIMONY 125 

and they will continue to protest while there 
is breath in their bodies. 

The situation which I am discussing is a 
striking illustration of the truth that the 
man who wrongs another sooner or later 
suffers the penalty. 

When Abraham Lincoln was chosen, it 
was said that "For the first time the negro 
elected a President." The Reverend Dr. 
Jones of Atlanta expressed the same truth 
when he said in addressing the students of 
Hampton last May: 

You protest that you have not full political free- 
dom in the South to-day. No, and neither have I. 
You answer that I have the ballot. Yes, but what is 
the worth of a ballot which can be counted before 
it is cast? What is the value of a vote which cannot 
be backed by freedom of political choice? . . . We 
said that we would shut the negro out of our 
political life, and yet, ever since, the shadow of your 
race has rested upon every political discussion, and 
you have in a real sense dominated every political 
election. The simple truth is that when we all 
became Democrats we did so at the cost of our 
democracy. . . . For wherever "Democrat," or "Re- 
publican" stands for sectional, racial, or class con- 



126 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

sclousness, it is an evidence, not of political free- 
dom, but of party despotism. 

As I have said elsewhere, go South and 
ask men who have retired and are dis- 
interested spectators, ask the men of affairs, 
ask the students of history, and if they 
answer fairly they will tell you that where 
there is only one party and no opposition in 
a free state, its government will not continue 
to be good ; that where all great public ques- 
tions are decided, not upon their merits, but 
according to a single prejudice, they cannot 
be decided wisely; and that where a whole 
community combines to perpetrate or 
tolerate injustice upon any class of citizens, 
or even upon a single man, no citizen's 
rights are safe, for every man's sense of 
justice is blunted, and he who rides to power 
on one prejudice to-day may be the victim of 
another prejudice to-morrow. The attempt 
to punish Dreyfus for a crime he did not 
commit, supported though it was by the 
highest officials and the strongest influences 



OUR COUNTRY'S GOOD NAME 127 

in France, nearly overthrew the Republic. 
It is harder to wrong a race than a single 
man. 

The government of the whole country- 
suffers while millions of citizens are denied 
their rights, and for the sake of white and 
black alike, for the sake of generations still 
unborn, every citizen of this country should 
throw his whole weight against the prejudice 
of color. It is a cultivated, not a natural, 
feeling, a fact to which the millions whose 
blood is mixed bear silent witness. It is 
fashionable for the moment, and it is for us 
to set a better fashion, lest we find that as 
the nation could not live half free and half 
slave, so it cannot endure half just and half 
unjust. 

How do you suppose such things affect 
our country's reputation with really civilized 
nations ? You can answer this question for 
yourselves if you will remember your boyish 
feelings about the North American Indians, 
who never did anything more cruel than 



128 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

these white Americans, or if you will imagine 
hearing that such things had been done in 
Turkey, or Russia, or by Germans in Bel- 
gium or Poland. We must end these horrors 
at home before we can attack others abroad. 
If the effect on the country's good name is 
bad, what think you is the effect on our- 
selves.? What education are the children 
getting whose mothers take them to witness 
such barbarities, and whose fathers hold 
them up that their view may be uninter- 
rupted .f* These children will govern this 
country in a few years, and how will they 
govern it.? A community so brutalized as 
those communities must be where men 
are thus tortured is a bad neighbor. We do 
not let our little children torture animals, 
for we know that the practice of cruelty de- 
praves those who are guilty of it. Why are 
we silent when whole communities are thus 
degraded .? If they were threatened with the 
destruction of property by conflagration or 
flood, we should rush to help them. Bar- 



OUR COUNTRY'S GOOD NAME 129 

barism is a worse foe than flood or fire. 
When, however, Dyersburg stains our good 
name only a few voices of little authority 
are raised in protest, and no attempt is made 
to punish the criminals. College festivals 
come and go, but what college president, 
what orator at Commencement, takes the 
evil of lynching as his subject.^ The univer- 
sal silence disgraces us more than the acts 
themselves. The lynchers are ruffians and 
act as such, but the silent statesmen, clergy- 
men, and scholars are the best men in the 
country. Let us hope that the new genera- 
tion will feel its obligations to the country 
more keenly. 

In the words of Emerson : 

If the black man carries In his bosom an indis- 
pensable element of a new and coming civihzation, 
for the sake of that element no wealth, nor power, 
nor circumstance can hurt him; he will survive and 
play his part. If you have man, black or white is 
an insignificance. The intellect, that is miraculous; 
who has it has the talisman. His skin and bones, 
though they be black as midnight, are transparent 
and the stars shine through with attractive beams. 



130 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

I would commend to you the statement of 
an eminent Southerner, Henry W. Grady. 

The problem of the South is to carry on within 
her body politic two separate races, equal in civil 
and political rights, and nearly equal in numbers. 
She must carry these races in peace, for discord 
means ruin. She must carry them separately, for 
assimilation means debasement. She must carry 
them in equal justice, for to this she is pledged in 
honour and in gratitude. She must carry them even 
unto the end, for in human probability she will 
never be quit of either. 

This prejudice of color is not the only 
racial or class prejudice which threatens our 
peace. Our attitude toward the Chinese, 
Japanese, and, indeed, all Asiatics, I shall 
deal with when I come to discuss our foreign 
policy. The dangers which are likely to 
spring from the tendency of organized labor 
to disregard the interests of the whole com- 
munity will be reserved for another lecture. 
These subjects cannot be dealt with in 
passing. 

The fact which we should keep constantly 
in mind is that we are not a homogeneous 



OUR RECEPTION OF IMMIGRANTS 1 3 1 

people. We have rejoiced to think with Mr. 
Lowell that this country has "room about 
her hearth for all mankind." We have been 
delighted to believe that we offer a refuge 
for the oppressed of all lands. All over 
Europe are men who regard the United 
States as Mr. Rihbany, the Syrian minister 
of a leading Unitarian church in Boston, 
tells us he was taught to regard it : 

Its people were rich and religious and little else. 
Every one of its citizens told the truth and nothing 
but the truth. . . . America had neither fleet nor 
armies ... a land of free schools, free churches, 
and a multitude of other organizations which 
worked for human betterment. 

Immigrants from every nation under the sun 
have been welcomed to our shores and given 
in ver>^ few years all the rights of native-born 
Americans. They have built our railroads, 
settled our territories, turned our wild lands 
into fertile farms, and in every way speeded 
our growth. Such a country should have no 
use for words like "Dago," "Mick," 



132 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

"Dutchy," "Nigger," "Wop," "Sheeny," and 
the other contemptuous phrases with which 
our people express their regard for the 
foreigners who claim our hospitality. It is 
vital to our continued safe and prosperous 
existence that our people should be welded 
together so that they may become really 
American in thought and purpose as well as 
in right. The task of "Americanizing" our 
citizens of foreign birth or descent calls for 
active work on the part of us all. As a people 
we are jealous of our rights as individuals, 
but not too mindful of our obligations to 
others, and we need to have the Golden 
Rule constantly in mind. 

We need to cultivate mutual good-will 
among the different elements in our popula- 
tion, so that we may all work heartily to- 
gether. In the past years we have talked 
much of our hospitality to foreigners, but 
our acts have not borne out our words. If 
the men of Irish descent in this country form 
a faction devoted to Irish interests and work- 



THE IRISH IMMIGRANTS 133 

ing to secure place and power for Irishmen, 
it is our fault. When they began to cross the 
ocean, notwithstanding all their charming 
qualities, they were received and treated as 
inferiors. They were poor, and because they 
were poor were ignorant. Their poverty 
drove them to live in cheap neighborhoods. 
They were naturally clannish and their 
neighborhoods became inevitably more or 
less dirty and squalid, for their children were 
numerous. They were rather inclined to 
foster discord as a result of convivial excess. 
They were born with love for a fight, and, 
above all, as Catholics they encountered the 
strong religious prejudice which still re- 
mained as the aftermath of religious persecu- 
tion and war in Europe. The ruins of the 
Ursuline Convent near Boston, which was 
burned by a mob, were allowed to stand for 
years as a mute witness against such intoler- 
ance. The Irish immigrants found our 
people individually kind, but collectively 
somewhat hostile. When they sought work 



134 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

they found too often in advertisements for 
workers of all sorts the words, "No Irish 
need apply." The so-called "American" or 
"Know-Nothing" Party was formed to pre- 
vent their gaining political power, and the 
inevitable result was to drive them back upon 
themselves, to make them a coherent body, 
defending each other and working for each 
other. 

They have won their fight; they have 
secured honors, place, and power. They 
have served this country well in many ways, 
they have shown remarkable ability in prac- 
tical politics and great gallantry in war, but 
their political ideals have not been high, and 
as a result the governments which they have 
controlled have not been conspicuous for 
honesty or efficiency. We have paid and are 
paying in various ways for having driven the 
Irish to remain Irish instead of mingling 
with us as Americans. Our sins have found 
us out. 

The Germans who came here were more 



THE GERMAN IMMIGRANTS 135 

warmly received. They did not, like the 
Irish, settle in the Atlantic cities, but went 
West and opened up new states. The Irish 
were a compact body living near the centre 
of population. The Germans were more 
scattered, and dwelt in the West on what 
were then the outskirts of our people. They 
were quiet, industrious, and, above all, were 
largely if not mostly Protestants. Their 
leaders, like Carl Schurz, had high political 
ideals, and threw themselves into our 
political conflicts as Americans, not as 
Germans trying to get some advantage for 
Germans. The Irish never joined the anti- 
slavery movement, but allied themselves 
with the Democratic Party, while many of 
the Germans were vigorous abolitionists. 

From these two nations came the bulk of 
our immigrants, and until within compara- 
tively a few years the other newcomers were 
of such varied strains that their accession to 
our population was hardly noticed, and since 
the Germans as a rule joined the Republican 



136 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

Party while the Irish acted with the Demo- 
crats, there was no especial sympathy 
between them, and the fear that our citizens 
of foreign descent were in any way a menace 
to our institutions never troubled us. We 
felt that our country was giving them a 
wonderful opportunity, and we expected 
from them unbounded gratitude. 

We require all foreigners who desire to 
become American citizens to abjure allegi- 
ance to their native country, and to swear 
allegiance to ours. It is a formal act easily 
performed, but it really means very little. 
It is impossible to eradicate the natural love 
for a man's own home, the sympathy with 
his kindred and his countrymen inherited 
from his parents and fostered by all the sur- 
roundings of his early years. A curious 
example of this is given by Carl Schurz, as 
loyal an American as ever lived, who after 
the German revolution of 1848 came to this 
country, and lived here from 1852 till h0 
died. He wrote his "Reminiscences" som0 



DUTY OF THE NATURALIZED 137 

fifty years or more later, when he had become 
a master of English and one of the most 
brilliant orators that America has known, 
but when he came to write about his early 
life in Germany he found that he must write 
in German, for that was the language in 
which he had thought and talked as a boy 
and with which all his life in Germany had 
been lived. His German story of this period 
was translated into English by a friend and 
as translated forms the first part of his book. 

But while we cannot expect our natural- 
ized citizens to forget their friends, and their 
country, we have the right to insist that their 
acts shall be American, and that they shall 
not use this country as a base for operations 
which involve an interference in the affairs 
of another country. In dealing with foreign 
nations the interest of the United States, its 
rights, and its obligations are alone to be 
considered, and the country must act as a 
whole through its own government. 

The policy of this country in this respect 



138 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

was stated in perhaps the most critical period 
in our national existence. During the Civil 
War, when the Southern States were trying 
to establish their independence, there was 
reason to believe that England and France, 
goaded to action by the intense suffering 
which the lack of cotton caused in the manu- 
facturing districts of both countries, might 
interfere to prevent the continuance of the 
war, an interference which would probably 
have resulted in the victory of the Southern 
Confederacy. It was at the very crisis of 
the Cotton Famine that the Secretary of 
State, Mr. Seward, wrote to our Minister in 
London, Mr. Adams : 

If the British Government shall in any way 
approach you directly or indirectly with propositions 
which assume or contemplate an appeal to the Presi- 
dent on the subject of our internal affairs, whether 
it seem to imply a purpose to dictate or to mediate 
or to advise, or even to solicit or persuade, you will 
answer that you are forbidden to debate, to hear, or 
in any way receive, entertain, or transmit any com- 
munication of the kind. . . . 



THE SINN FEIN AGITATION 139 

If you are asked an opinion what reception the 
President would give to such a proposition if made 
he.re, you will reply that you are not instructed, but 
you have no reason for supposing that it would be 
entertained. 



This was said with a full appreciation of 
the momentous consequences which might 
follow. 

It is not difficult to imagine what our 
attitude would be if the British Parliament 
were to pass resolutions favoring the inde- 
pendence of the Philippines, or denouncing 
our protectorate over Cuba, or our course 
in Hayti and Santo Domingo. The policy 
announced by Mr. Seward would not be 
varied and the popular indignation would be 
expressed freely. Yet now there is travelling 
in this country a person who styles himself 
the President of the Irish Republic, who is 
trying to collect millions of money from 
sympathizers with Irish independence for 
purposes not disclosed, and in various places 
he is received as if he were indeed what he 



I40 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

claims to be. In America only is he recog- 
nized as holding any official position. 

In a memorial to the Senate of the United 
States, signed by numerous Irishmen who 
sympathize with this self -exiled ruler, this 
statement is made : 

Through long centuries of oppression Ireland has 
maintained her national spirit largely because she 
has always hitherto been able to cherish a hope 
that she might receive from some well-disposed 
foreign power the assistance which would insure 
her independence. She looked to Spain for this aid 
at the close of the sixteenth century; to France in 
the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth cen- 
turies. She looks for it now in the twentieth century 
to America, and we confidently hope and pray that 
the Senate will not allow that light of hope to be 
extinguished. 

Spain gave her the Spanish Armada. Do we 
wish it had not been destroyed, and do we 
really think that Ireland would have been 
freer under Spanish rule than as a part of 
the English Empire, having more votes in 
Parliament than any other equal number of 
men in the British Islands ? 



THE SINN FEIN AGITATION 141 

At the hearing where this memorial was 
presented its first signer said in a carefully 
prepared speech: "England cannot continue 
to control the world unless she controls the 
sea, and her continued control of the sea is 
dependent on her continued control of 
Ireland." 

Without discussing the question whether 
England controls the world, it is important 
to note that these Irishmen realize that con- 
trol of Ireland is vital to England, and yet 
tell us that they expect from us the assist- 
ance which will end that control. They 
oppose the ratification of the Peace Treaty 
now, not in the interest of the United States, 
but in the interest of Ireland. They are 
entirely willing, if not anxious, to create a 
feeling in this country against Great Britain 
which, for the sake of giving 4,000,000 people 
in Ireland a form of government which prob- 
ably a majority and certainly a large 
minority do not desire, would involve hun- 
dreds of millions in war which could only 



142 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

put civilization back for at least a century, 
and substitute German tyranny for Anglo- 
Saxon liberty. The men who advocate this 
are not considering the interests of this 
country, and should be made to realize that 
if they are Americans their course is not 
patriotic, and if they are Irishmen they 
should fight her battles at home, and not 
seek shelter for their hostile operations under 
the American flag. 

In like manner, during the recent war the 
Germans in this country proved to be more 
German than American. We know much 
of their plots against their fellow-citizens 
resulting in explosions and conflagrations 
which destroyed much property, and we sus- 
pect much more, though perhaps our suspi- 
cions have been exaggerated. This, however, 
is clear. The German-Americans could have 
expressed to the German people their horror 
of the crimes and hideous brutalities which 
the rulers of Germany ordered and their sub- 
jects committed. They could have shown 



GERMAN-AMERICANS IN THE WAR 143 

that some Germans did not approve the 
deportation of girls, the slaughter of non- 
combatants, the deliberate devastation of 
France. They could have said with Otto 
Kahn : "We will not permit the blood in our 
veins to drown the conscience in our breast. 
We will heed the call of honor beyond the 
call of race!" They could by open speech 
have proved "that the taint of Germany is 
not in the blood, but in the system of ruler- 
ship." They held their peace and did it 
deliberately, as I learned in conversation 
with a native American of German descent. 
These Germans are now in this country, 
many of them embittered against us by the 
defeat of their Fatherland. They feel that 
any combination between America and the 
European Allies is hostile to Germany, and 
as the Irish-Americans would keep us apart 
for what they think the interest of Ireland, 
the German-Americans join hands with 
them in aid of Germany, and instead of being 
opponents these powerful bodies of voters 
are allied against this country's interest. 



144 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

No American needs to qualify his loyalty 
to this country by any foreign prefix. 
Hyphenated Americans are not Americans, 
but contain only a percentage of American- 
ism. Their activities in the interest of other 
countries should be frowned upon by us all, 
for they are to-day a greater menace to our 
peace than the radicals whom we ignorantly 
call Reds, and whose influence in our affairs 
we are very much inclined to exaggerate. If 
we ever are driven into war it will be by 
pressure from within, not by attacks from 
without, and this pressure will come from 
compact organizations of citizens, not from 
casual agitators. Against this pressure every 
American citizen who loves his country 
should ever be on guard. 

The remedy against the dangers which 
these combinations threaten is to be found 
in breaking them up, not by oppressive laws 
or external force, but by teaching them to 
forget ancient wrongs and unite in an effort 
to make a better world to-day. We must not 



HYPHENATED CITIZENS 145 

let these citizens remain as separate factions 
with distinct interests united to each other 
and against the rest of us by any tie of blood. 
We must persuade them to become members 
of our family, make them see the importance 
of those interests which are common to us 
all, and by persuading them to unite with us 
in common activities gradually build up an 
un-hyphenated people. 

During the late war when efforts were 
making to raise money for the Government 
by selling Liberty bonds, the different na- 
tionalities in many places came together and 
through committees containing representa- 
tives of each carried on the work in har- 
mony. The members of these committees 
found themselves closely associated with men 
and women of perhaps twenty different 
peoples, and were surprised to realize as 
never before that all the nations on earth are 
really of one blood. They learned how many 
people of each race were dwelling in their 
city, and were astonished to find what man- 



146 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

ner of people they were, how intelligent, how 
anxious to help, how well-educated, how good 
in every way. They made friendships with 
people formerly strangers, which were the 
prelude to more intimate relations, and they 
found also how glad these foreign citizens 
were to be called upon for aid, and how 
anxious to meet their neighbors on a common 
ground. They discovered how isolated these 
strangers had felt, how they regretted the 
coldness of those into whose neighborhood 
they moved, and who never called upon them 
or made any attempt to establish social re- 
lations with them. The intercourse thus 
begun was good for all who became associa- 
ted in this way, and it also brought to light 
the pressing need of more kindly action by 
individuals toward making our new citizens 
feel that they are not strangers in a strange 
land, but that America is their home. 

This has led in some places to the forma- 
tion of cosmopolitan clubs, social organiza- 
tions formed to bring the various groups of 



HOW TO IMPROVE RELATIONS 147 

citizens closer together, to promote friend- 
ship and stimulate activity for our national 
ends. Movements like this point the way, 
and those who are anxious to help in solving 
the problems which arise from our varied 
citizenship cannot do better than promote 
efforts to get at our immigrants, learn their 
needs and their views, make friends with 
them and help them. The more it is done 
the easier and the more interesting the work 
will be, and the reward will be ample, for a 
very little kindliness receives a ready re- 
sponse, and a more enduring gratitude than 
one expects. An article by Margaret Mad- 
den in the "Catholic Charities Review" 
states the case so well that I quote a passage : 

We need to remind ourselves that each nation 
which has contributed to the growth of America has 
given something of value, that it is our duty to 
know what those values are so that we may see 
in the humble immigrants something more than a 
herd of strange-looking people, wearing strange 
clothes, eating strange foods, and following strange 
customs. We must see them as potential Americans 
looking forward to this country as a land of oppor- 



148 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

tunity. We must enter into a sympathetic under- 
standing of their abilities, of their limitations, their 
difficulties, their low standard of living, their nat- 
ural tendency to congregate with people of their 
own tongue — all of these things we must be able 
to understand and to estimate in terms of relative 
importance. If we cannot do this, let us not attempt 
to Americanize them. We had better let the task 
alone. For any plan of Americanization which 
attempts, in a spirit of aloofness, to hand out and 
deliver Americanism to the foreign-born group is a 
failure before it begins. If we keep before us our 
ideal of democracy — the essential of which is partici- 
pation — we will realize that the foreign-born must 
Americanize themselves. 

If we will only recognize our common 
humanity, abandon our contemptuous 
phrases and our irritating stories at each 
other's expense, cease to doubt the good faith 
of our neighbors and not give vent to every 
hasty suspicion which arises in our minds; 
in short, if we would treat our fellow-citizens 
as ladies and gentlemen should treat each 
other, class and racial prejudice will begin to 
disappear, and our melting-pot will better 
fuse the varying elements which it receives, 
and in the end turn out a purer metal. 



THE LABOR QUESTION 

Among the grave problems which confront 
America to-day is that presented by the feel- 
ing which finds expression under various 
names, the feeling that the goods of this 
world are distributed unequally, that the rich 
oppress the poor, and that the powers of 
government are used to aid this oppression 
and perpetuate the inequality between 
classes. 

In different parts of the world different 
methods of changing this situation are pro- 
posed. In Russia the Bolshevists would 
apply the remedy of wholesale destruction, 
hoping that out of the resulting chaos a new 
civilization may be developed and adopting 
the well-known method of the physician who 
would always throw his patient into fits be- 
cause of his skill in dealing with that dis- 
order. This purpose is avowed with absolute 
frankness. In his proclamation calling the 



ISO PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

Congress of the Communist International, 
Lenin thus states it: 

The present is the period of destruction and 
crushing of the capitalistic system of the whole 
world. 

The aim of the proletariat must now be immedi- 
ately to conquer power. To conquer power means 
to destroy the governmental apparatus of the bour- 
geois and to organize a new proletarian govern- 
mental apparatus. 

The new apparatus of the Government must ex- 
press the dictatorship of the working class. 

As we go West this extreme doctrine is 
gradually modified, and becomes socialism 
of different types until, in the western 
countries of Europe, in England, and in the 
United States, we find the L W. W. adopting 
a platform which contains the following 
demands : 

All land should be taken over by the State either 
directly or by confiscating taxation; the adoption of 
the initiative, referendum, and recall, including the 
recall of judges; the abolition of the United States 
Senate and the veto power of the President; the 
abolition of all Federal courts except the United 
States Supreme Court, which is to be shorn of its 



DISCONTENT IN AMERICA 151 

power to declare a law unconstitutional, and the 
election of all judges for short terms, all of which 
[to quote the platform] are but a preparation of 
the workers to seize the whole powers of govern- 
ment in order that they may thereby lay hold of 
the whole system of socialized industry and thus 
come to their rightful inheritance. 

The United Mine Workers insist that 
labor is entitled to the full value of whatever 
it produces, and that the employer is entitled 
"to no compensation for the money he has 
invested." The Plumb bill, proposing that 
the Government own the railroads and in 
substance let them be managed by the em- 
ployees, and the demands of the labor unions 
for a greater voice in the management of 
industrial enterprises are steps in the same 
movement to equalize the conditions of men, 
which is a perfectly natural and laudable de- 
sire. 

These reformers — Bolsheviki, socialists, 
leaders of labor, or pure idealists — have no 
difficulty in framing their indictment of ex- 
isting conditions. The lots of men are most 



152 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

unequal, the good things of the world are dis- 
tributed unevenly, labor is often underpaid, 
capitalists are often greedy and selfish, legis- 
lators and administrators are often corrupt, 
the weak are trampled on by the strong — in 
a word, the world is very unsatisfactory. I 
would not minimize these things in the least. 
The contrast is heart-breaking between the 
comfort in which many of us live and the lot 
of the poor workman struggling to support 
his wife and children in sordid surroundings 
with the fear of sickness and disabling age 
always before him, while his wife is bearing 
and rearing children in conditions which 
would seem to us impossible. It is so easy 
to point out the evils which society tolerates 
that many agitators devote themselves to 
this work and thereby gain credit with the 
unthinking. The only important question is 
how to cure these evils, and in current dis- 
cussion that is little considered. 

Let us begin, therefore, by admitting that 
all the charges are true. Let us say to our 



WE ARE DEALING WITH MEN 153 

fellow-men that, no matter how black they 
paint the picture, we shall not dispute its 
substantial accuracy. Let us admit that 
there is now no duty so clear as the duty of 
finding a way out of the situation, a duty 
which rests upon every man, and which must 
not be postponed or shirked; and having 
cleared the ground by these admissions, let 
us proceed to consider how this duty shall be 
done. 

The first thing to remember is that we are 
dealing with men, having certain passions, 
tastes, and desires, governed by certain 
motives, and on the other hand, influenced 
by certain ideals and capable of great sacri- 
fices. Such as we know them they always 
have been and we cannot change them. The 
situation which the agitators of to-day wish 
to reform has existed at every period of re- 
corded history. There never has been a 
country or a time in which men have not 
been divided into classes, and except for brief 
intervals of revolution in which there have 



154 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

not been established governments main- 
taining order and protecting the Hves and 
property of peaceful citizens against lawless 
violence. 

Four hundred and ninety-three years be- 
fore Christ occurred the general strike, when 
the plebeians of Rome retired to Mons Sacer, 
and Menenius Agrippa persuaded them to 
return by his fable of the belly and the mem- 
bers, a tale of the time when the members 
revolted against the inert, luxury-loving 
belly, which they carried about, fed, and 
kept in idleness while they labored hard for 
its benefit, but without which they could not 
exist for a moment. It is a familiar story, 
but the lesson which it taught must be 
heeded to-day as it was centuries ago. 
We may well also take to heart the other 
lesson which Menenius teaches that it is by 
wise argument and not by repressive vio- 
lence that we can best deal with our fellow- 
men. 

Man's limitations have made the world in 



THE MOTIVE TO WORK 155 

which we Uve, and those Hmitations are the 
bars of a cage from which we cannot escape. 
The world offers opportunities for sport and 
pleasure of every kind which tempt us all, 
and work has been disliked by unregenerate 
man ever since Adam heard the sentence 
which he had brought upon himself: 
"Cursed is the ground for thy sake: in sor- 
row shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy 
life. ... In the sweat of thy face shalt thou 
eat bread." Yet unless it works, the human 
race cannot survive. No man can imagine 
a workless world inhabited by a race given 
up to idleness and pleasure. 

It takes some strong inducement to make 
us all do what we dislike, and that motive is 
found either in the hope of getting some- 
thing that we desire or avoiding something 
that we fear. The hope of winning the 
things which will make life easier and pleas- 
anter for ourselves and those we love, or the 
fear that we and ours may suffer from cold, 
hunger and disease, these are the underlying 



156 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

motives which drive us to work, and we must 
be careful that in any reform we adopt these 
motives are left in full force. Every one 
must feel that unless he does his share of 
the world's work he cannot have his share 
of what the world gives. We must not make 
the idle comfortable at the expense of the 
industrious. As the farmer does not reap 
unless he sows and cultivates, so men must 
realize that as a rule each gets out of the 
world what he puts into it, no more and no 
less. 

In order that the motives which induce us 
to work may be left in full force, men must 
be allowed to acquire property. They work 
to make themselves, their wives, their par- 
ents, and their children comfortable, to pro- 
vide against any calamity which will leave 
the old to depend on charity, and the young 
helpless and uneducated. Ingrained in man 
is the desire to provide for a rainy day. If 
society were so constituted that every one 
was supported at public expense and the 



THE MOTIVE TO WORK 157 

fruits of each man's labor went into the 
public treasury, a premium would be offered 
on idleness and the "tramps" of the world 
would receive very dangerous re-enforce- 
ment. To make them work some system of 
punishment would be needed to take the 
place of deprivations which to-day punish 
the idle. It may well be doubted whether 
any penalties which the law could provide 
would be found as effectual as the present 
penalty — the pain of starvation. 

It is true that under this system some men 
will acquire great wealth, and that their chil- 
dren will perhaps become mere idle wasters, 
apparently doing nothing to benefit the com- 
munity and setting a bad example to other 
men. This may and often does happen, for 
it is always true that any power may be 
abused, and anything in itself good may be 
wasted or misused. The remedy is not to 
take away the power, but to control the 
abuse. 

This evil generally corrects itself, for, as 



158 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

the saying is, "It is only three generations 
from shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves." Nor is 
extravagant expenditure a necessary evil. 
All the money that is invested in securi- 
ties helps the world. It builds factories 
and supplies the means of carrying on 
their operations, thus furnishing employ- 
ment to many. If invested in the bonds 
of nation, state, or city it builds roads, 
waterworks, supports hospitals and asylums, 
feeds our armies in time of war, and is all 
used in some way for what is believed to be a 
useful end. If it is deposited in banks, it 
does not stay in the vaults, but is lent and 
used to carry on the world's work. No 
money can be invested or spent without do- 
ing some good, and as an illustration of this 
truth let me take the case of such an expens- 
ive luxury as lace, which is a mere ornament, 
and the purchase of which might well be re- 
garded by the critic as wasteful extrava- 
gance. Let him go to the villages of Italy, 
Holland, and Belgium and see the women in 



WEALTH BENEFITS THE PUBLIC 159 

humble circumstances who make their living 
by lace-making, and he will learn that if 
their market were cut off very general mis- 
ery would result in considerable communi- 
ties, that what seems extravagance in the 
buyer is life to the maker, and that the result 
is merely a distribution of wealth. Expendi- 
ture for balls and parties of every kind sup- 
ports dressmakers, milliners, waiters, and 
the producers everywhere who supply the 
dainties which are consumed. It is only 
money which is not spent, but buried in the 
ground or hidden in stockings, that is use- 
less. 

As we turn to the Bible again and again 
for the lessons taught by human experience, 
it is not singular that in the parable of the 
talents we find this truth stated. The ser- 
vant who received from his lord five talents 
"went and traded with them and made them 
other five talents." To him his lord said: 
"Well done, thou good and faithful servant. 
Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I 



i6o PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

will make thee ruler over many things." 
The servant who received one talent, and 
who hid it in the earth, was denounced as a 
"wicked and slothful servant," and sen- 
tenced to be cast "into outer darkness where 
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 

The great fortunes of the day are not to 
all appearance dangerous, but used as Mr. 
Carnegie, Mr. Rockefeller, and Mr. Frick 
have used them in aid of education, peace, 
and public health, they are of incalculable 
public benefit. Happily the rich men of 
America, like the Medici of Florence, feel 
their obligation to the community, and 
wherever we go, whether in great cities or in 
little towns, we find a public library, a col- 
lege, a hospital, or some public institution 
which was founded by some rich man. The 
Johns Hopkins University and Hospital, the 
Public Library of New York, and all our 
great universities are monuments of such 
generosity. 

But it is said that if all wealth were held 



WEALTH BENEFITS THE PUBLIC i6i 

by the public, the public could create such 
institutions. The public taste and the pub- 
lic benevolence cannot be trusted. The edu- 
cation which wealth and leisure give is 
needed both in selecting the objects and 
adapting the means in such cases. The 
Medici enriched Florence with monuments 
of architecture, painting, and sculpture 
which have been the wonder of the world. 
The public wealth of the United States has 
given us the statue of Lincoln by Vinnie 
Reams, the works of art which adorn the 
Capitol at Washington, including the hor- 
rors in the old Representatives Chamber, 
and the many monstrosities which are scat- 
tered over our country. The history of the 
Capitols at Albany and Harrisburg, or of the 
City Hall in Philadelphia, show how little 
the agents of the public can be trusted to 
spend the public money. 

The contrast is instructive. When wealth 
is controlled and guided by public spirit, the 
community gains by it. The wise use of 



1 62 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

riches can be encouraged by public apprecia- 
tion and gratitude till it becomes almost 
imperative. The rich man will feel the force 
of example and learn to use and not to 
hoard. Excessive accumulation can be con- 
trolled by taxes and otherwise, but whatever 
laws are adopted, the motives which lead 
men to work must be left to operate unim- 
paired, and of these the most universally 
recognized is the wish to acquire property. 

The hardest work is done for other ob- 
jects, to win fame or power, to make some 
great scientific discovery Iwhich will help 
mankind, to write some book which will 
educate the world, for many objects which 
will bring neither wealth nor fame; but 
though this is true the hope of gain and the 
fear of poverty are what keep mankind at 
work, and any system which takes from men 
the rewards of industry and thrift can never 
endure. 

The equal distribution of property and 
the abolition of the differences between men 



EQUAL DISTRIBUTION 163 

at which sociaUsm aims are impossible be- 
cause it is impossible to change human 
nature. What has been ever since men were 
is what will be, and the differences which are 
born in them are ineradicable. Some will 
be rich, some will be poor, some well, others 
sick, some wise, their neighbors foolish, 
while the world lasts, and each man's nat- 
ural endowment will determine what his life 
will be as surely as apples come from apple- 
trees and pine cones from pines. 

Though the world cannot be remodelled 
on the Bolshevist plan, this is not to say that 
it cannot be improved, but there are certain 
conditions which reformers are apt not to 
recognize. One is that workers can only be 
paid out of what work produces. There is 
a moral as well as an economic side to this 
proposition. The rules of the labor unions, 
which forbid a workman to do all he can in 
a given time and establish a low standard of 
performance to which all must conform, 
which require the painter to use a three-inch 



i64 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

brush, or the bricklayer to lay a small num- 
ber of bricks, as well as the practice of loaf- 
ing during working hours, are open to vari- 
ous objections. They reduce production, 
they discourage good work, and they are 
essentially dishonest. Whatever the wages 
agreed upon, the workman expects honest 
dollars in payment. He would consider his 
employer dishonest if he were paid in Can- 
adian bills worth only ninety cents each. 
For honest dollars he should give honest 
hours of work, and when he tries by slack 
work to prolong his job he is stealing just as 
clearly as if he took money from his em- 
ployer's pocket. The first essential of good 
relations between employer and employed is 
honesty on both sides — ^what Mr. Roosevelt 
taught us to call "the square deal." 

Strikes also diminish production, and 
while they cost the employer his profits 
while they last, and perhaps more in depreci- 
ation of material and other ways, they cost 
the strikers their whole wage. What they 



STRIKES INJURIOUS TO ALL 165 

might have produced during the strike is so 
much taken from the fund for the payment 
of wages, and it is as impossible to recover 
the loss as to call back the hours which have 
been spent in idleness. If the workman 
were to take a slate and pencil, figure up the 
loss, and then compare it with the gain from 
any increased wage, he would be amazed to 
find how little if anything he had gained by 
the most successful strike. 

Moreover, the workman like us all, is vit- 
ally interested in having a good and steady 
market for his work, and strikes destroy 
that market. For example, every man be- 
fore building a house or factory wishes to 
know what it will cost and when he can 
count on having it. If he is liable to have 
this cost increased at any moment and the 
time of completion postponed from time to 
time by strikes, he will not build, and the 
men whom he would have employed must go 
idle. Once it is generally understood that 
mechanics cannot be trusted to keep their 



i66 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

agreements, and are always liable to stop 
work at the order of some walking delegate, 
men cease to build and the market for work- 
men is depressed. The law of supply and 
demand is inexorable, and when the demand 
falls wages fall too, depressed by the over- 
supply of men. 

By such practices conditions are re- 
versed. The employer does not oppress 
the workman, but the workman oppresses 
the employer. Once enlisted in an enter- 
prise the employer must finish it or lose his 
investment, and the workman uses this ad- 
vantage. He gets a golden tgg, but he kills 
the goose, for the victimized employer will 
not court disaster again. Unless both sides 
to the contract of labor live up to their 
agreement honestly, the whole community 
suffers, and in the long run the dishonest 
man pays much more than he gets. No class 
in society can prosper which cannot be de- 
pended on to keep its word. 

Moreover, there is much confusion of 



THE LAW AS TO STRIKES 167 

thought about the right to strike. If a man 
is employed by the day he has the right to 
leave his employment at the end of any day. 
If, however, he has agreed to work for a 
definite time upon terms fixed by the con- 
tract, he has no right to leave till the time has 
expired. If he does he is liable for damages. 
The workman in this respect has the same 
rights and liabilities as every other citizen. 
His contract binds him as it binds every one. 
It is impracticable to make a man work 
against his will by any law or decree of 
court, and so the workman has the power, 
but not the right, to break his contract and 
take his chance of a lawsuit. He has no right 
to his job unless he keeps his agreement. If 
he breaks it he cannot insist that the em- 
ployer owes him any duty. If the employer 
can find another man to take the striker's 
place he has a perfect right to do so, and 
the new man has a right to work. This 
right the striker is bound to respect, and all 
attempts to interfere with it are illegal. The 



i68 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

leaders of labor talk of their constitutional 
right to strike. The Constitution gives them 
no such right, but every man has the consti- 
tutional right to sell his labor on such terms 
as he and his employer agree upon, except so 
far as for public reasons that right is limited, 
and this right must be respected and se- 
cured. The strikers feel at liberty to attack 
the laborers who succeed them, and almost 
every strike has its concomitants of violent 
attacks on persons or property. The labor 
unions must understand that they are bound 
to respect the Constitution which they in- 
voke, and that their action in using violence 
in aid of strikes is not only not protected by 
any constitution, but is criminal and to be 
punished as such. 

The law recognizes no privileged class and 
is the same for employer and employee, for 
striker and "scab" ; and one of the first steps 
toward the establishment of proper relations 
between workmen and their employers is the 
recognition of this fact. The unionized 



STRIKES AND COST OF LIVING 169 

workmen must realize that they are citizens 
like the rest of us, and as such bound to obey 
the law. 

There is another law which cannot be 
ignored, the law that in this world a man 
must pay for what he gets. Nobody can be 
expected to furnish anything to another for 
less than cost. "Fair exchange is no rob- 
bery," but any unfair exchange is akin to 
theft. For this reason the constant rise in 
wages does not help the workmen. When 
the wages in one industry are raised, a stan- 
dard is established to which all others must 
come. You cannot pay farm hands less 
than city laborers or workmen in factories 
for any length of time. The rise in wages 
means an increase in all expenses, public and 
private. It means an increase in the price 
of food and clothes, in railroad rates, in 
street-car fares, in rents, and every other 
thing which enters into the cost of living. 
The increases do not occur all at once, but in 
succession, and for the moment one class is 



170 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

ahead, the next another, but in the long run 
the increase is evened up and no one gets 
any permanent advantage. It is as Mr. 
Jewell, a leader in the Federation of Labor, 
has put it, "a movement in a vicious circle." 
But it has another unhappy consequence, 
thus stated by George N. Watson, also en- 
listed on the side of labor, who recently, 
after saying that labor is taxed for each in- 
crease in wages through higher prices for 
what it buys, continued as follows : 

This unfortunate result, while demonstrating the 
folly of wage-boosting, concerns only ourselves; 
what is inviting, even bringing disaster, is the fact 
that the unorganized salary-workers are also taxed 
for these wage increases, without any benefit to 
themselves other than an excuse for feebly crying, 
"Me, too." Now, if these workers were few, this 
effect would, of course, be negligible, but they are 
greatly in the majority. Remember that President 
Gompers, in his great defence of organized labor at 
the Industrial Conference, claimed only 23,000,000 
supporters out of a population of over one hundred 
million. 

But, if these many millions of salaried workers 
cannot keep up with organized labor, they can re- 



STRIKES AND COST OF LIVING 171 

tard its progress. And this they are now doing 
very effectively. Why? Because they are united 
in the conviction that they are now being exploited 
by organized labor as well as by organized capital ; 
and they can trip us up much more easily than they 
can block the profiteers. Everywhere there is evi- 
dence that what was sympathy with the movement 
is now bitter antagonism. . . . What is the lesson 
for organized labor in this unexpected opposition? 
It is simply the realization that the unorganized 
salary-workers are the deciding factor in the im- 
portant struggles between organized labor and the 
employers; and that our policy is turning them 
against us. 

His conclusion is that the thing for or- 
ganized labor to do is to discourage strikes 
and "wage-boosting," and to "get strenu- 
ously to work." 

This is wise advice. If instead of reducing 
production by wasting time the workers of 
this country would turn to and produce 
more things, there would be more money to 
be divided, a larger supply of all needful 
things so that prices would fall, and the 
workman could save more money. 

Taking then, as the conditions of our 



172 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

problem, man as he is, honest deahng and 
respect for contracts by all parties, due 
respect for the legal rights of each other, and 
the rule that nothing can long be had for 
less than cost, what can we do to help the 
laboring people of the world? 

The first thing is a better understanding 
of the facts, which can be reached only by 
temperate and fair discussion. I would sug- 
gest in the first place abandoning the words 
"capital" and "labor" to designate the 
opposing sides in labor disputes. Capital 
thus used means to the unthinking excessive 
wealth, working for itself and trying, no mat- 
ter how, to exploit the laborer, while labor is 
the honest, hard-working man kept in pov- 
erty by its machinations. The accurate 
words would be "employer" and "employee" 
— ^both capitalists and both laborers, the for- 
mer often working far harder and longer 
than the latter. We must make them both 
realize that there is no necessary antagonism 
between them, but that each is indispensable 



WHAT CAPITAL IS 173 

to the other, and that there should be un- 
broken harmony between them if the work 
of the world is to be done well. 

We may well begin by making them un- 
derstand what capital means — that the tools 
of the mechanic, the library and desk of the 
lawyer, the instruments of the doctor, nay, 
the clothes which they wear, the coal in their 
bins, the food in their cellar, are all capital, 
as was the oil in the lamps of the wise 
virgins. When the United Mine Workers 
declare that the whole product of the mine 
belongs to the miners, and that those who 
contributed the capital for its development 
should receive nothing, we should invite 
them to consider what that means. 

Let them imagine a thousand laborers 
standing on the bare hillside beneath which 
lies a mine and told that they may have all 
that they can get out of it without capital. 
They see before them the necessity of sink- 
ing shafts for thousands of feet, of running 
levels to reach the ore, of providing timber 



174 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

to keep shafts and levels from falling in, 
pumping machinery to keep the mine dry, 
hoisting engines and all the complicated 
machinery needed to take out earth and 
raise the ore to the mouth of the shaft, and 
for many other purposes too numerous to 
mention. They would naturally say, "We 
must have some shovels to start with." But 
what are shovels.'' To furnish them some 
workman must have dug the iron ore from 
the mine, some workman must have made it 
into steel, some workman must have fash- 
ioned the steel into the shovel's blade, some 
workman must have cut the trees and made 
the handle. These facts are obvious. Are 
these workmen not to be paid? If the shovels 
are to reach the site of the mine some men 
must help transport them. Are they to go 
without compensation.? Is it not a conven- 
ient way of paying them all to let a third 
man buy the shovels and bring them to the 
miners who need them, and will any man do 
this unless he is paid for his outlay and his 



CAPITAL NECESSARY TO LABOR 17S 

trouble? The same questions could be 
asked of everything needed to develop the 
mine, and the miners must see that they, 
like all others, must pay for what they get. 

There may be no mine under the ground. 
Are the miners prepared to take this risk? 
Is there any better way of meeting these 
difficulties than by letting men, who are will- 
ing to provide the things needed to open the 
mine and to take the risk of finding nothing, 
receive as compensation for their contribu- 
tion some shares in the mine which will be 
entitled to a part of the profits ? Is this any 
more than giving them what belongs to 
them ? 

Again the miners must see that while they 
are opening the mine, during the months — 
perhaps years — before they reach paying ore, 
they will need food and clothes, but these are 
capital. Will they also feed and clothe 
themselves before the mine begins to pay, 
and take their compensation in shares of the 
mine? Clearly they cannot. They must 



176 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

have wages to live on, for without it no shop- 
keeper would trust them. His supplies are 
capital, and carried for their use only be- 
cause he has money with which to buy them. 
He could not feed them for years without 
pay, for he would be wasting his substance. 
The miners must see, if they will think, that 
the riches of Golconda locked up in a mine 
would be beyond their reach unless they had 
the aid of capital, and that its aid cannot be 
had for nothing. 

The same reasoning applies to every fac- 
tory, to every railroad, and in short substan- 
tially to every employment. Capital is not 
the employer ; it is only the tool which both 
employer and employee use, and without 
which industry must fail. It is the food on 
which every industrial enterprise lives. 

The wage-earner puts his savings into a 
savings bank. He provides against disaster 
by a life insurance policy. When he denies 
income to the capital invested in railroads, 
mills, and other industrial enterprises, he 



THE TYRANNY OF LABOR 177 

strikes at himself, for the savings banks and 
life insurance companies have invested his 
money in the stocks and bonds of railroads 
and mills, and when these suffer their depos- 
itors and policy-holders suffer. The rail- 
roads need money to build bridges, to keep 
their roads in order, to provide new rolling 
stock, and new safety appliances. If they 
earn nothing they cannot borrow and must 
stop, inflicting at once incalculable injury on 
the whole community, and taking from their 
employees the means of livelihood. 

If the State takes the railroads, it only 
shifts the burden and the public pays the cost 
of operating them in the form of steadily 
mounting taxes. In this world one gets 
nothing for nothing. 

The labor leaders talk about the tyranny 
of capital. To-day they are the tyrants, and 
in a free country no tyranny can endure. 
Labor now feels itself a privileged class, and 
recognizes no obligation to the community. 
Yet a citizen who is running a loom has no 



178 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

rights to which his neighbor who keeps a 
shop is not equally entitled. What would be 
the effect if he followed the workman's ex- 
ample? Let us suppose a railroad strike 
which brings a great state to the brink of 
starvation and stops the wheels of all its 
factories, and that the butchers, bakers, and 
grocers say, "We must keep our food for 
ourselves and our friends who are suffering 
from the strike and we will sell nothing to 
men who refuse to work." Would not the 
railroad men feel themselves badly treated.'' 
Yet butchers h^ve as good a right to strike 
as engineers, — the men who suffer privation 
as the men who cause it. 

Suppose, following the example of car- 
penters and others who work only five days 
in the week, the doctors refused to do any 
work from Friday at five o'clock till Monday 
morning. A young friend of mine last win- 
ter had a large window blown in on a cold 
Friday evening, making her whole house 
dangerous to her young children and most 



THE TYRANNY OF LABOR 179 

uncomfortable. She asked the carpenter to 
come and repair it, only to be told that he 
would do nothing till Monday, though as a 
favor he did come up and nail the blind so 
that it did not slam. What would that car- 
penter have said if his wife had been taken 
violently ill that same night and the family 
physician had refused to come till Monday, 
or the apothecary had closed his door and re- 
fused to sell him any medicine.'* 

Some years ago a senator of the United 
States told me that a barn which contained 
the year's crops of his large plantation was 
being shingled, and at five o'clock Saturday 
afternoon an hour's work needed to be done 
in order to complete the job. A heavy 
storm was evidently coming on, and he asked 
the workmen not to leave the centre of the 
roof open, but to work another hour and 
make the roof tight. He promised them very 
large extra pay, and pointed out that if they 
refused his entire crop would be lost. To a 
man they refused to work after five, and as 
a result his crops were lost. 



i8o PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

This tyranny affects not only employers, 
but the working-men. On July 19th, 1918, 
in the Constitutional Convention of Massa- 
chusetts, Mr. Underhill, speaking "for the 
independent workers, for the man who is 
trying to run a small manufacturing busi- 
ness, for the small tradesman, for the sales- 
man, the clerk, the stenographer, the teacher, 
the doctor, the minister, and the many others 
of various callings who make up the life of 
the community," himself a workman at the 
beginning and always a friend of labor, told 
these stories : 

To my attention not long ago came a family — 
wife, husband, and six children. The man was seri- 
ously ill. His illness was of long duration, and for 
six months we did all we could to keep that family 
together. We happily succeeded. 

He was a painter by trade, and upon his partial 
recovery I secured a little inside work in our vicinity 
for him. As he grew stronger, I looked about for 
other places, and I found a good, big-hearted man 
who had an inside job in one of the Boston hotels 
and who said he would give him employment. 

He put the man to work, but the walking dele- 



SPEECH OF MR. UNDERHILL i8i 

gate of the Painters' and Decorators' Union came to 
this employer within two hours and said: 

"Mr. R., I will have to call out our men. You 
have non-union help here." 

"Why," said the employer, "I haven't anything 
of the sort." 

"Yes, you have," said the delegate; "a new man 
went to work this morning." 

"Well," said Mr. R., "send him to me and I will 
have him join the union." 

My friend was called and said: "Mr. R., I am 
willing to join the union, but they won't let me." 

"Won't let you.^ What do you mean by that?" 

"Why, sir, they want ^50. You know I have 
been sick for six months. The butcher, the baker, 
and everybody in my vicinity have trusted me be- 
cause they knew that I was honest. The union 
won't take $10 a week for five weeks out of my pay 
In order that I may join. They want $S0 at once." 

But when Mr. R. offered to advance the money 
the walking delegate said my friend could not work 
on that job anyway! 

Last spring while sitting in this chamber I was 
called out by a man who said: 

"I have been a foreman carpenter out in your 
town, and, as you know, the building business is 
dead; there Is not a thing to do except on govern- 
ment work. I have a job offered me at Ayer, but 
the union won't let me go to work." 



1 82 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

I said, "Why don't you join the union?" 

He replied: "I have tried to join the Union, but 
the only condition under which they will take me 
in is that I shall not go to work at Camp Devens." 

I called into consultation a man high in the coun- 
cils of the labor union movement, a man for whom 
I have a great deal of respect. I put the case up 
to him, and he said to me: 

"Charley, we can't do a thing with the building 
trades. We can't do a thing with them." 

Mr. Underbill added: 

I have given two instances. You say they are 
isolated. I say they are typical. There are hun- 
dreds just like them, and you know it. 

Unions leave to charitable associations the care 
of their unfortunates who are unable to pay their 
dues. I know, because they have come to me for 
help. 

They won't let a man work unless they can tell 
him where h6 shall work and what he shall do. 

Every one has heard of many such cases, 
and if you inquire you will find that many a 
strike, which is reported as demanded by the 
union, has been voted for by a small minority 
at a thinly attended meeting — thinly attend- 
ed because the tired workman after his day's 



HOW UNIONS ARE GOVERNED 183 

work will not go and listen to long discus- 
sions in which the principal speakers do not 
command his confidence, just as good citi- 
zens in the days of the caucus would not 
attend. In each case the control of the or- 
ganization falls into the hands of a few active 
men, and they reach results which their asso- 
ciates resent, but lack the patience or the 
courage to fight against. 

The labor leaders, not themselves work- 
men, and not therefore familiar with the 
conditions in a given industry, are a danger 
to the country and to their followers as well. 
They are professional agitators, and if all 
goes well and every one is satisfied, the 
unions would soon ask, "Why should we pay 
these men for doing nothing.?" Hence they 
must always be on the lookout for a chance 
to show that they are needed. 

A member of the War Labor Board thus 
states the case : 

What is the nature of a union? It Is a hori- 
zontal slice of society made up of men whose only 



1 84 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

community of interest is their trade or craft. A 
machinist in a machine shop, and a machinist who 
is the repair man in a cotton mill, have little more 
community of interest than the members of a fat 
man's club; and machinists in two automobile fac- 
tories may be in active competition with each other. 
They are members of rival teams and their success 
depends on the success of their teams, not of their 
union. Their union is not productive and represents 
no part of the actual industrial structure. It is an 
artificial creation and the basis for its membership 
is a purely arbitrary classification. It is simply a 
welfare organzation, and therefore has no right to 
interfere with or obstruct the creative organizations 
that are doing the work of the world. 

Not being a creative organization, union leaders 
are selected for their popularity and because they 
are clever fighters and not for their achievement or 
ability as thinkers. They must keep the favor of 
the men and they are therefore subject to popular 
clamor. The chief skill needed to hold their position 
is the skill of the politician. 

Again, if they succeed in doing what they are 
elected to do, that is, secure proper wages and con- 
ditions for the men, they work themselves out of 
a job. If conditions are satisfactory no one needs 
the union or cares to pay its dues. As a son wrote 
his father who for thirty years has been an organ- 
izer for one of the big unions: "You may be sur- 
prised to have me say this. Dad, considering the 



THE PROFESSIONAL AGITATOR 185 

surroundings I grew up in, but there is no occasion 
for a union here. It is an absolute pleasure to 
work." 

In short, to hold his job a union leader must 
have an issue, and if one does not exist he must 
create it. If he doesn't some fellow-unionist, am- 
bitious for the job, will start an issue on his own 
account and get elected. This means that the 
union leader must constantly be starting something. 
He is of necessity an agitator. 

This does not apply to the international officers, 
many of whom are highly intelligent and reasonable 
men with a wonderful knowledge of people, and a 
sincere desire to assist the workers, nor does it, of 
course, apply universally to the local leaders, but it 
does apply to a very large proportion of them and 
it is the inevitable tendency. 

The men who make up the element in our 
population which calls itself "Labor" are 
men like their fellow-citizens. They are 
brought up with the same traditions and be- 
lieve in the same principles. They must be 
made to realize how selfish, how tyrannous 
is the present policy of the leaders whom 
they support. They must have clearly set 
before them that they are as responsible for 
the well-being of the country as any other 



1 86 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

citizen, and that they have no right to ask for 
themselves laws and privileges which are not 
given to their neighbors. 

The constant presentation of the facts, put 
briefly and clearly, is necessary to make 
them see through the eyes of their neighbors. 
'Tut yourself in his place" is the simple rule 
never to be forgotten by either side. What 
is needed, in the first place, is mutual under- 
standing. The employer must put himself 
in the workman's place and learn his point 
of view, his difliculties, and his hardships. 
The workman must be admitted to the coun- 
sels of the employer, and be taught the risks 
and uncertainties of his business, how much 
he can afford, and what will make his busi- 
ness impossible. The workman must learn 
that every employer has his own problems. 
Mr. Ford, with his tremendous income and 
his very profitable business, could afford to 
pay high wages, but his offer brought work- 
men from all sides only to find that all his 
needs were supplied and that other men 



BRITISH LABOR PROGRAMME 187 

could not pay such wages, while all rents had 
risen with Mr. Ford's wages. A millionaire 
can afford to give his cook and his servants 
very high salaries, but his neighbors cannot, 
and when by the changes proposed million- 
aires cease to exist, wages must fall, and as 
we all approach the same level domestic ser- 
vants will be driven into competition with 
carpenters and masons, who cannot be per- 
mitted to deny them the right to work at 
their trades. 

Let us beware of our prejudices, and re- 
member with John Bright that "the nation 
in every country dwells in the cottage." 

A committee of the British Labor Party 
has prepared a careful programme for the 
reconstruction of society, and it has been 
much applauded. It begins with the assump- 
tion that European civilization has been 
destroyed by the war. To quote the com- 
mittee's words : 

The Individualist system of capitalist production, 
based on the private ownership and competitive 



1 88 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

administration of land and capital, with Its reckless 
"profiteering" and wage slavery, with its glorifica- 
tion of the unhampered struggle for the means of 
life, and its hypocritical pretence of the "survival 
of the fittest," with the monstrous inequality of 
circumstances which it produces and the degra- 
dation and brutalization, both moral and spiritual, 
resulting therefrom, may, we hope, indeed, have re- 
ceived a death-blow. With it must go the political 
system and ideas in which it naturally found ex- 
pression. 

The programme goes on as follows : 

First. The first principle of the Labor Party 
... is the securing to every member of the com- 
munity, in good times and bad alike ... of all the 
requisites of healthy life and worthy citizenship. 

The law must 

2. Require the Government to find for every 
willing worker, whether by hand or brain, productive 
work at standard rates. 

This is to be done by public works, "by 
raising the school-learning age to sixteen," 
by greatly increasing "the number of schol- 
arships and bursaries for secondary and 
higher education," and by shortening the 
hours of labor to forty-eight hours a week 



BRITISH LABOR PROGRAMME 189 

for adults and much less for younger per- 
sons. Moreover, whenever the Government 
"finds it impossible to discover for any will- 
ing worker, man or woman, a suitable situa- 
tion at the standard rate," it "must provide 
him or her with adequate maintenance." 

3. Secure the immediate nationalization of rail- 
ways, mines, and the production of electrical power 
[and] their union along with harbors and roads 
and the posts and telegraphs, not to say also the 
great lines of steamers which could at once be 
owned, if not immediately managed in detail by 
the Government, in a united national service of 
communication and transport; to be worked, un- 
hampered by capitalist private or purely local 
interests (and with a steadily increasing participa- 
tion of the organized workers in the management, 
both central and local), exclusively for the common 
good. 

4, Insure the assumption by a state department 
of the whole business of life and industrial assur- 
ance, [and the expropriation of] the profit-makiag 
industrial insurance companies, which now so ty- 
rannously exploit the people with their wasteful 
house-to-house industrial life assurance. 

It asks that the Government, among other 
things, 



190 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

6. Provide for the continuance of the govern- 
ment control established during the war of the 
shipping, woollen, leather, clothing, boot and shoe, 
milling, baking, butchering, and other industries 
[and] the importation of wheat, wool, metals, and 
other commodities [and the fixing of prices] at the 
factory, at the warehouse of the wholesale broker 
and in the retail shop. 

7. [Give to municipalities] every facility . . . 
to acquire easily, quickly, and cheaply all the land 
they require, and to extend their enterprises in 
housing and town planning, parks and public 
libraries, the provision of music and the organization 
of recreation; and also to undertake besides the 
retailing of coal and other services of common 
utility, particularly the local supply of milk, 

8. [Secure ultimately] the common ownership 
of the nation's land. 

To meet the enormous expense which this 

scheme entails, it aims at such a system of 

taxation as will 

yield all the necessary revenue to the Government 
without encroaching on the prescribed national 
minimum standard of life of any family whatsoever, 
without hampering production or discouraging any 
useful personal effort and with the nearest possible 
approximation to equality of sacrifice. 

These laudable objects are to be attained 



BRITISH LABOR PROGRAMME 191 

without any protective tariff, "any taxation 
of whatever kind which would increase the 
price of food or any other necessary of life," 
any "taxes interfering with production or 
commerce or hampering transport and com- 
munications." Indirect taxation is to be 
"strictly limited to luxuries and concen- 
trated principally on those of which it is so- 
cially desirable that the consumption should 
be actually discouraged," a vanishing source 
of revenue it would seem. 

The usual sources of revenue by customs 
and excise being thus restricted, the expenses 
of the nation are to be paid by the taxation 
of incomes "above the necessary cost of fam- 
ily maintenance," by the direct taxation of 
private fortunes, and by enormous inheri- 
tance taxes, taking all except the sum which 
a rich man may be allowed "to divert by his 
will from the national exchequer." The na- 
tional debt is to be paid or largely reduced by 
a capital levy chargeable, like the death 
duties, on all property, "graduated so as to 



192 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

take only a small contribution from the little 
people and a very much larger percentage 
from the millionaire." 

For the future the surplus produced in 
any year above what is required for the sup- 
port of the people is to go "not to the enlarge- 
ment of any individual fortune, but to the 
common good." From this surplus provi- 
sion is to be made for the sick and infirm, for 
education, for music, literature, and the fine 
arts, and for everything "brightening the 
lives of those now condemned to almost 
ceaseless toil." 

Let us suppose that an employer and a 
workman, in complete sympathy and anxious 
to change the world for the better, were to 
sit down together and make some calcula- 
tions. Let them take first what it will cost 
the State to take all the property now used in 
transportation and communication, rail- 
roads, steamships, street railway, gas and 
electric lighting systems, ports, harbors, 
power plants, mines, to make an imperfect 



BRITISH LABOR PROGRAMME 193 

list of public utilities. Unless it is proposed to 
take them without paying, a German device 
against which the world is fighting, a new na- 
tional debt far exceeding the war debt would 
be created with a corresponding burden of 
interest. If the public does not pay, it at 
once destroys the large fortunes out of which 
the national debt and other public expenses 
are to be met. 

Let them take next the cost of keeping 
these properties in order, adding to their fa- 
cilities, building new tracks, bridges, etc., 
and the wages of the men employed in run- 
ning them, bearing in mind that many rail- 
roads and other public utilities do not pay 
now and must be made at least self-support- 
ing. 

Let them take next the cost of providing 
every one with employment, "in good times 
and bad alike," at a rate sufficient to secure 
to every one "all the requisites of healthy 
life and worthy citizenship," and also pro- 
viding for the comfortable support of the old 



194 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

and disabled, including the expense of 
asylums, hospitals, and like institutions now 
in many cases supported by private endow- 
ment. 

To this add the expense of education, 
"scholarships and bursaries," and college ed- 
ucation for many more than now receive it 
to say the least, the expense of nationalizing 
the land, the expense of life and industrial 
insurance, the manufacture and sale of alco- 
holic drinks, the building of houses — to com- 
plete the programme add "parks and public 
libraries, the provision of music, and the 
organization of recreation," and do not un- 
derestimate the army of men who are to 
carry on all this work for the State, as well 
as control all the business now in private 
hands and see that the laws which fix prices 
and the like are enforced. Even the dullest 
must realize that the total is appalling. 

Passing now to the other side, where is 
the money to come from which will meet 
these expenses.? Customs and excise taxes 



BRITISH LABOR PROGRAMME 195 

are barred as well as those which Interfere 
"with production or commerce" or hamper 
"transport and communication." The State 
cannot tax the property which belongs to 
itself and is used in these multiple activities, 
nor the income which flows from them. 
That would be taxing itself. 

Reliance is placed upon taking by taxation 
the fortunes of the rich and a large part of 
their incomes. But once these fortunes have 
been taken to pay the government debt or 
to fill the public exchequer, either by direct 
tax during the life or by inheritance taxes on 
the death of the owner, this resource will be 
gone, and from what sources any person is 
to derive a large taxable income and build up 
a new fortune is not apparent. With every 
public utility in the hands of the State and 
all business controlled by it to prevent large 
profits, it is impossible to see whence large 
incomes can come, and with large incomes 
will disappear the value of jewels, great 
houses and ornamental grounds, and many 
other investments of capital. 



196 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

The income with which the large expenses 
are met must come from the business now 
done by private citizens which will be trans- 
ferred to the State. This means that it must 
be conducted so as to realize a large profit 
and by very efficient men. The workmen 
who enter the service of the State cannot be 
allowed to strike, because strikes will dimin- 
ish the income of the State, both by suspend- 
ing earnings while the strike continues and 
by increasing expense. The Government 
must decide what it can afford to pay its 
employees and what it must charge the pub- 
lic for the service which it renders, and he 
who enters the employ of the State must en- 
list as one enlists in the army, so that a 
strike will be mutiny. He can no longer 
ignore his contract. 

The Government must fix wages and 
rates so as to get a proper income from the 
public industries, otherwise the whole 
scheme fails. Is there anything in our ex- 
perience which should lead us to expect that 



BRITISH LABOR PROGRAMME 197 

government service would be as efficient as 
private service? Are our cities so well gov- 
erned, are our public enterprises so well 
managed, are political considerations so 
carefully excluded in dealing with public 
matters, that we can expect good results 
from the change proposed? Will not dema- 
gogues of all kinds seek to gain the good 
places in the public service? Will there not 
be a wage-earners' party opposed by a rate- 
payers' party, and candidates seeking the 
support of one or the other by lavish prom- 
ises? Will the campaign fund be forgotten 
and no voter or legislator be venal ? To-day 
the managers of private corporations have 
an interest in reducing cost and improving 
service. They seek larger business and 
greater returns. The public official will have 
no such motive to guard the public interest, 
but will inevitably adopt the course best cal- 
culated to keep his place. This is human 
nature and it cannot be changed. The field 
for the operation of such organizations as 



198 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

Tammany and its kindred Rings in other 
cities will be enlarged enormously. Will 
they keep their hands from picking and 
stealing ? The patronage of the Government 
will be multiplied a hundred-fold. Is there 
in this no danger to democracy? Will not 
an unscrupulous ruler find in the office- 
holders an army of supporters in a political 
campaign.? You can answer these questions 
as well as I. 

Are the people no longer to save? Their 
savings will be capital and must be invested. 
Where are the investments to be found; 
what securities will be left? There will be 
no public bonds, for the State, having paid 
its existing debt by taking the property of 
the rich and calling the process taxation, will 
not incur a new debt. The interest on this 
would add to the public burden, and if the 
new debt were to be paid in its turn by tak- 
ing the savings of the thrifty, no one would 
care to save. If the infirm, sick, and dis- 
abled are to be supported by the State, if 



PROFIT-SHARING 199 

there are no profitable investments which 
are safe from the tax-gatherer, why should 
any one save? 

Such paternalism as is proposed takes 
away the hope of better things, the love of 
one's family, the fear of poverty and suffer- 
ing, the great motives which develop the in- 
dustry, the ability, the skill of men. What 
have been deemed the prizes of life cease to 
exist. Will public spirit and the ambition to 
leave an honored name take their place.'* 
No one who has thought on such problems 
can fail to see that an attempt to re-create 
the world on such a new plan cannot suc- 
ceed. The Bolsheviki open the door to the 
Kaiser. 

To many of us it has seemed that the best 
way to give the laborer a fair share of what 
he produces was through genuine "profit- 
sharing," creating in him an interest in the 
business which will make him work for its 
success and insuring him a proper compen- 
sation for his work. To such it is discour- 



200 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

aging to find in a recent book of Sidney 
Webb on the very problem which we are 
considering the following passage: "This 
does not mean profit-sharing (an exploded 
futility which is simply anathema), and 
must on no account be thought of — ^its mere 
mention will wreck any settlement." This 
weapon, therefore, breaks in our hands. A 
moment's reflection will tell you why. 
Profits are not the payment of a definite sum 
for definite work. They are the reward of 
skill in managing a business, of the work 
which the owner does in season and out of 
season, and are subject to risks of loss from 
various causes including strikes by his work- 
men. No man will take the risk of loss un- 
less he has the hope of profit. The workmen 
will not take the risk of loss. They cannot 
afford it, for they need assured support, and 
since in the long run compensation by a 
share of profits involves the risk of loss, they 
will have none of it. 

If the reformers who pose as the friends 



SUCCESS DUE TO HARD WORK 201 

of labor would think for a moment, they 
would realize that the successful men of the 
world owe their success to hard work con- 
tinued through long hours by night as well 
as by day. No great surgeon, no successful 
lawyer, no captain of industry has won his 
place by eight hours' work a day for five days 
in the week. He has burned much midnight 
oil, has passed many sleepless hours on his 
bed, has spent himself freely to win his 
prizes. Idleness and poor work never won 
anything valuable. "Heaven helps him who 
helps himself," and in helping himself helps 
his neighbors. 

Men must realize that the tyranny of labor 
is as dangerous to freedom as the tyranny of 
wealth, and bow to the principles thus laid 
down by four great organizations of farmers 
in a memorial to Congress, "No set of men 
has ever had the moral or legal right to de- 
stroy property or cause suffering by combin- 
ing together, and the welfare of all the people 
* aust ever remain superior to that of any 



202 : PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

class or group of people." The same power 
that fettered the trusts may yet deal with the 
unions, but it is to be hoped that wiser 
counsels will prevail, and that employer and 
employed will recognize and apply, as they 
must, the homely but ancient rule, "Live and 
let live." 

In conclusion, we may agree that excessive 
profits should be curtailed, that the work- 
man should have a voice in the conduct of 
the business which his labor makes possible, 
and that everything should be done to make 
his life happy, but the motives which lead 
every man to do his best work, to live a sober 
and industrious life, should not be impaired. 
Everything should be done to study the 
situation, to promote good feeling, to secure 
co-operation between those who must work 
together, but let us remember that we are 
dealing with human nature and with all the 
obstacles that greed, selfishness and jealousy 
can put in our way, and recognize that we 
cannot create a new world, though by kind- 
liness and patience we may improve the old. 



OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS 

Let me invite your attention this evening to 
the international relations of this country 
which are sure to become more and more im- 
portant as the years go on. The United 
States is to-day the dominant power in this 
hemisphere, and no American entertains a 
doubt that it will remain so, as six years ago 
every German confidently expected to see 
"Deutschland iiber alles." 

As is the wont of mankind, we consider all 
other peoples our inferiors. It is an ancient 
hallucination. Sir John Mandeville, the 
famous English traveller, in 1360 after his 
return from his adventurous journeys, said, 
"Fro what partie of the erthe that men 
dwellen, other aboven or beneathen, it sem- 
ethe always to hem that dwellen that thei 
gon more righte than any other folke," and 
the same delusion persists, though for some 
eighteen centuries we have professed to be- 



204 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

lieve that all nations of men are made of one 
blood "for to dwell on all the face of the 
earth." 

It is amusing to what extravagances our 
self-conceit carries us. Our nation is the 
greatest of nations, our state is the best state, 
our city leads all others, our quarter of the 
city is the best, our side of the street is better 
than the opposite, our set ranks all others, 
our family is the best in our set. The process 
of elimination can be carried further, but I 
forbear. These beliefs are the product of 
conceit and ignorance. We should never 
forget the lesson contained in the little anec- 
dote of Charles Lamb. He said, pointing to 
another man, "I hate that man." "Why," 
said a friend, "do you know him?" "No," 
replied Lamb, "if I knew him I shouldn't 
hate him." 

Let us approach the subject in a more 
modest spirit. Consider first our geographi- 
cal position. North of us lie the British Pro- 
vinces, a region filled with boundless natural 



OUR GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION 205 

resources, very imperfectly appreciated and 
as yet hardly touched. To-day it has a popu- 
lation of some seven or eight million people, 
but its possibilities are indicated by the state- 
ment of an English journal which was in sub- 
stance as follows : "India has a population of 
about 300,000,000, Australia is three times as 
large as India, and Australia laid on the 
British possessions in North America would 
bear about the same relation to them as the 
cup does the saucer." This is not mathema- 
tically exact, but it is substantially true, and 
Canada to-day offers the greatest rewards to 
enterprise. In time it will in itself be a 
mighty empire. 

South of us lies Latin America, divided 
into some twenty different republics with 
nearly as large an aggregate population as 
our own and with much larger territory, for 
Brazil alone is larger than the United States. 
The people who dwell in them have inherited 
different traditions from ours, speak a dif- 
ferent language, and have different standards 



2o6 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

in many ways, but are a proud and self- 
respecting race. 

Across the Atlantic on one side of us is 
Europe, which I need not describe, and across 
the Pacific on the other lie Japan and China 
with enormous populations and great possi- 
bilities not yet developed according to the 
world's standards of to-day, but gaining 
rapidly. By our conquest of the Philippine 
Islands we have assumed responsibilities and 
obligations in Asia, and are necessarily in- 
terested in Asiatic politics. We began our 
career in Asia with the cheerful assumption 
that the Asiatics are lower in the social scale 
than ourselves, forgetting the truth thus ex- 
pressed by Meredith Townsend that "All 
creeds accepted by civilized and semi- 
civilized mankind are of Asiatic origin. All 
humanity, except the negroes and the savage 
races of America and Polynesia, regulate 
their conduct and look for a future state as 
some Asiatic has taught them." 

. . . Europe having accepted with hearty confi.- 



CHINA AND JAPAN 207 

dence the views of Peter and Paul, both Asiatics, 
about the meaning of what their Divine Master 
said, regards all other systems of religious thought 
with contemptuous distaste, and sums them up in 
its heart as "heathen rubbish." Yet Confucius must 
have been a w^ise man or his writings could not have 
moulded the Chinese mind, while Mahommedanism 
has a grip such as no other creed, not even Christi- 
anity, possesses except on a few individuals. Brah- 
manism and Buddhism alike rest upon deep and 
far-reaching philosophies. 

The truth is, the contempt is chiefly born of 
neglect and ignorance. We do not know 
them, we do not try to know them, we do not 
wish to know them. It is easier to wrap our- 
selves in our own conceit and look down 
upon them, but is it safe.'' 

We thought the armies enormous which 
were engaged in the Great War. Let Mr. 
Townsend tell us of Asiatic power: 

We think of these masses of men as feeble folk, 
but one single section of them never seen outside 
their own peninsula, the warrior races of India, out- 
number all who speak English; while a single race of 
formidable fighters, capable of discipline, in a group 
of islands off the coast, the Japanese, are more 
numerous than the French. When the Mongol, or 



208 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

rather a small federation of tribes from among a 
division of the Mongols, first burst out of his steppe 
he reached France, and on the plain of Chalons 
nearly overthrew the Roman Empire. When the 
Arabs, never fourteen millions strong, debouched 
from their deserts, they defeated both Eastern Rome 
and Persia, extirpated the Vandals of North Africa, 
conquered Spain, and ajter their first energy had 
decayed, drove the picked chivalry of Europe out 
of Palestine. When the third Asiatic explosion took 
place, the Mongol conquered China and India, which 
he kept, and Russia, which he only lost after two 
centuries, and made all Europe tremble lest by de- 
feating Austria he should acquire dominance 
through the whole west. Intermediately, a little 
Asiatic tribe seated itself in Anatolia, warred down 
the Eastern Empire of Rome, threatened all Central 
Europe, and to this hour retains the glorious prov- 
inces which it oppresses only because, by the consent 
of all who have observed him, the Turk Is the best 
individual soldier In the world. Three Asiatic 
soldiers, the Turk, the Sikh, and the Japanese, have 
adopted European arms and discipline, and no man 
can say if either of the three encountered Russian 
armies which would be the victor, yet Europe does 
not consider defeating Russians a light task. Taking 
the figures of the German conscription as our guide, 
there are In Asia eighty millions of potential soldiers, 
of whom certainly one-fifth know the use of 
weapons. 



EFFECTS OF WARS ON MANKIND 209 

This was written in 1900, and since then 
Japan has answered his question as to which 
would win in a war between that country and 
Russia. 

Few of us ever heard of that great battle, 
the battle of Yakusa, when in one day 90,000 
Roman regulars, aided by 150,000 auxili- 
aries, were absolutely defeated with the loss 
of more than 100,000 men by an Arab army 
of 40,000 men. History is said to repeat 
itself. 

What are to be our relations with these 
various nations that surround us? 

For centuries the history of the world has 
been the history of successive wars. One 
nation after another has fought its way to 
supremacy, enduring for a while only to go 
down before some new power. The might of 
Xerxes, the empire of Alexander who sighed 
for new worlds to conquer, the supremacy of 
Rome, the rule of Spain over two continents, 
have each in turn fallen to rise no more. 
The Bourbons, the Bonapartes, the Roman- 



210 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

offs, the Hapsburgs, and the Hohenzollerns 
have had their "httle hour of strut and rave," 
have deluged the world with blood, and have 
proved the truth of the text that "He who 
draws the sword shall perish by the sword." 
It is not difficult for us to determine what 
has been the effect of all these wars upon 
humanity. We know that they have caused 
untold suffering, that the Thirty Years' War 
left Germany a desert, that the wars of 
Napoleon reduced the stature of the French 
people. We can, if we will, trace the baleful 
effects of war upon civilization in every way 
until we agree with Benjamin Franklin that 
"There never was a good war and there never 
was a bad peace." By this no one means 
that a nation must not defend itself, or that 
an oppressed people must not revolt against 
tyranny, but it is the aggressors, the men 
who begin the war or create the conditions 
that make war inevitable, on whom must 
rest the responsibility for all the loss and 
suffering which war causes. 



EVILS OF MODERN WAR 211 

Terrible as were the consequences of war 
in the eariier centuries, the area was re- 
stricted. The religious wars which desolated 
Europe did not disturb Asia, and left the 
peoples of Africa untroubled. Nations 
were more isolated and homogeneous, the 
weapons of war were simpler and less expen- 
sive, the armies engaged were smaller. As 
late as our Civil War the army which 
General Grant commanded when he began 
his advance on Richmond in 1864 did not 
exceed 120,000 men. 

The last war has opened the eyes of 
us all to what war now means. Larger 
armies than were dreamed of until now 
have devoted years to mutual destruc- 
tion. Weapons which we thought barred 
by the conventions of civilized nations, 
like poisonous gas, have been employed 
freely. The rules of war have been changed 
infinitely for the worse. Noncombatants, 
women, girls, have been treated with incon- 
ceivable brutality. Artillery has acquired 



212 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

a range which seemed impossible. Ten- 
nyson's dream of aerial navies has been 
realized. Submarines have added new 
terrors to conflicts on the ocean, and the 
organized scientific devastation of occupied 
territory has horrified us all. The private 
property of innocent individuals has been 
stolen by high officers, great architectural 
monuments have wantonly been destroyed, 
and the world has been brought to the verge 
of ruin, whole populations are starving, great 
nations are bankrupt, and a load has been 
laid upon the backs of generations to come 
under which they must stagger for at least a 
century. The scars of the struggle are in- 
delible, and the hatred which these things 
have created seems likely to be ineradicable. 
It is impossible to exaggerate what this war 
has cost the world. 

We have learned not only the possibilities 
of modern war, but we have learned also that 
of nations as of men the text is true that our 
"foes shall be they of our own household." 



EVILS OF MODERN WAR 213 

It is difficult to assert anything with confi- 
dence about operations in their nature secret, 
but the world believes that German influence 
and German money withheld from the Rus- 
sian armies the food and the munitions 
which they needed in order to keep the field ; 
that the same forces were behind Lenin and 
Trotsky ; that Belgium was supplied by Ger- 
man manufacturers with guns and shells, so 
constructed as to be more dangerous to the 
Belgians than to their enemies; that the 
demoralization of the Italian armies which 
led to their memorable defeat was caused by 
false reports spread by the Italian emissaries 
of Germany. France had her Caillaux and 
Bolo with their followers, the so-called 
"defeatists." England had her Irish patriots 
supported by German money and supplied 
with German arms ; and we know how Ger- 
man plots in this country resulted in the de- 
struction of factory after factory, and in an 
active campaign among the elements of our 
population which are hostile to England that 



214 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

threatened the most serious consequences. 
In a word, we have learned that it is possible 
for a nation in preparation for war, through 
machinations conducted under the cover of 
intimate commercial relations, to paralyze 
its victims in advance. 

We have learned another important les- 
son, for we have found that a war between 
great nations cannot be confined to the 
original combatants. It is a conflagration, 
which, like the great Chicago fire, may start 
in a shed and spread till a whole city is in 
ruins. In any such contest we cannot re- 
main neutral. Whether we will or no, our 
interests are so widespread, so involved with 
those of other nations, so sure to be affected 
injuriously by a war, that strive as we may 
we are inevitably driven in self-defence to 
take part in the conflict. It was not to make 
the world safe for democracy, but to make 
it safe for ourselves, that we sent our armies 
across the sea. 

The policy of isolation, a very proper 



ISOLATION NO LONGER POSSIBLE 215 

policy for five millions of people just recover- 
ing from war and by no means united, is no 
longer possible or desirable. When Jeffer- 
son in his first message warned us against 
"entangling alliances," a phrase constantly 
attributed to Washington, we were separated 
from Europe and Asia by two great oceans 
which it took weeks to cross, and our deal- 
ings with other countries were few and 
simple. Now the steamship has bridged the 
oceans, the telegraph has made communica- 
tion constant and easy, the aeroplane may 
soon measure by hours the time between con- 
tinents, our dealings with Europe are 
constant, enormous in amount and as varied 
as human interests. We are vitally concerned 
in all that happens on either continent. The 
graves of our soldiers in France and in the 
Philippines have ended forever the possi- 
bility of isolation. We may shut our eyes 
and imagine that we are independent of 
Europe, but when we open them the illusion 
is dispelled. 



2i6 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

We are tied to the rest of the world by 
bonds that we cannot break, and we can no 
more dwell in the world and not be of it than 
a man who lives in a great city can be un- 
affected by the calamities which befall its 
inhabitants. The storms which break over 
the region, the pestilence which kills its 
people, the riots, the conflagration, the 
famines which afflict it, afflict him. Every 
man and every nation shares the good or ill 
which befalls the world, and must recognize 
the obligation to help others. As the influ- 
enza which starts in Spain comes across the 
sea to scourge the United States, and the 
bubonic plague comes from Asia to threaten 
us; as the insects which originate in other 
countries come to devastate our forests and 
our fields, so war, bankruptcy, or famine 
anywhere in the world come home to us, and 
prosperity anywhere helps us. An eminent 
political economist once said to me that the 
opening of the Suez Canal caused the panic 
of 1873 because it destroyed the value of the 



WHAT PREPAREDNESS MEANS 217 

East India fleet, the merchantmen that had 
carried the commerce between Europe and 
Asia round the Cape of Good Hope. We are 
not helping other nations only, but we are 
helping ourselves when we try to prevent evil 
or promote good in other countries. We are 
forced to say with Garrison, "Our country is 
the world — our countrymen are all man- 
kind." 

These are the lessons of the last five years, 
and we are living in a world which fears 
more, hates more, and trusts less than ever 
before. One question confronts all nations, 
white, brown, yellow, and black. Must we 
go on hating and suspecting each other, pre- 
paring for war at enormous expense, and by 
our very preparation insuring its coming? 
Must we tax ourselves to support large 
armies, great fleets, reservoirs of gas, enor- 
mous stores of arms, elaborate fortifications f 
Must we in self-defence maintain spies in 
every friendly country to watch with suspi- 
cion all that is done, and to justify their ex- 



2i8 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

istence by reporting all that they suspect and 
so promoting hostility? Must our scientific 
men devote their time and their knowledge 
to inventing new agents of destruction, guns 
that will carry projectiles one hundred miles, 
gases that will destroy the population of a 
great city, new explosives, new submarines, 
more formidable aeroplanes, withdrawing 
thus from useful research the time and talent 
which might be employed to arrest disease 
and help us all to live better and enjoy our 
lives more? Must we look forward always 
to new wars, to constant sacrifices of our 
youth, more universal starvation, more ab- 
solute ruin? Is human nature such a poor 
thing that any attempt to prevent these 
horrors is futile, and must the future like the 
past be only a record of wars growing 
steadily more general and more destructive 
of all that makes life valuable? Is the pro- 
spect so hopeless that we must not even try 
to make it better ? The real question for all 
statesmen and diplomats to-day is, "How 
shall we keep the peace?" 



INTERNATIONAL COURTESY 219 

Let me answer this question by asking 
another: "Is there any reason why nations 
should not behave like gentlemen ?" Why in 
our intercourse with other peoples should we 
not be courteous, rather than brutal or 
domineering? Should we not accomplish 
more if, in our diplomatic correspondence, 
in the speeches of our public men, and in the 
newspapers we gave foreign nations and 
foreign statesmen credit for the same 
honesty of purpose that we claim for our- 
selves? It is proverbially easy to bring up 
other people's children and to spend properly 
other people's money, but we have difficulties 
with our own. No ruler of men has his own 
way, from the selectman of a little town to 
the Prime Minister of England. For months 
many Americans have been pouring the vials 
of their wrath upon the President of the 
United States, while with another section his 
opponents are very much discredited. The 
statesmen who negotiated the Peace Treaty 
are fiercely criticized, and the less men know 



220 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

of the problems which confronted them and 
of the difficulties with which they had to deal 
the more bitter is the condemnation. Unless 
we know the situation we ought not to de- 
nounce the action of the men who had to deal 
with it. Government is always carried on by 
compromise. Different elements in a popu- 
lation have to he considered and humored, 
and while the general result may be good, the 
successive steps will always offer a mark for 
critics. We read the headlines in a news- 
paper, we skim some reckless speech, we 
know that newspaper paragraphs written of 
necessity in haste are not necessarily accur- 
ate, but from such data we form an opinion 
to which we cling obstinately, especially if it 
helps to support the position of our party. 
"Every country is held at some time to 
account for the windows broken by its press. 
The bill is presented some day or other in the 
form of hostile sentiment in the other 
country." These words of Bismarck, as 
quoted by Brander Matthews, should be 



RECKLESS NEWSPAPER TALK 221 

printed in every editorial sanctum. The 
feeling of hostility to England in this country 
— which is unfortunately too common — is in 
part at least due to the disparaging remarks 
of her newspapers and public men during the 
Civil War. When the Chairman of the 
Senate Committee on Foreign Relations de- 
votes a long speech to attacks on the pur- 
poses and sincerity of Japan, he is simply 
creating hostility, and as what he says comes 
from a man in high official position, it is 
more regarded and produces a far worse 
effect than the editorial in a newspaper, and 
the bill for it is just as sure to be presented. 

Breaking our neighbors' windows, to use 
Bismarck's simile, is a dangerous and ex- 
pensive sport. If we have doubts and sus- 
picions, they should be kept to ourselves lest 
hasty expression may goad hesitating friends 
into settled hostility. The man or the nation 
that desires peace should treat every one with 
courtesy, look for the good and not for the 
evil in others, and in his dealings be fair and 



222 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

assume that those with whom he deals wish 
to be fair also. There is everything in the 
way of putting things, and no man is fit for 
great responsibility who cannot put himself 
in the place of the man he addresses and 
speak as he would be spoken to. When as 
Secretary of State Mr. Root visited South 
America to attend the Pan-American Con- 
gress, he stated the true rule when he said : 

We consider that the independence and equal 
rights of the smallest and weakest members of the 
family of nations deserve as much respect as those 
of the great Empires. We pretend to no right, 
privilege, or power that we do not freely concede to 
each one of the American Republics. 

As an illustration of the tone to be avoided, 
and as a marked contrast to the words of 
Mr. Root, let me quote the language of the 
dispatch sent by Secretary Knox to the 
diplomatic representative of Guatemala in 
Washington, when Zelaya was the President 
of that state : 

Since the Washington Convention of 1907 it is 
notorious that President Zelaya has almost con- 



DISCOURTEOUS DIPLOMACY 223 

tinuously kept Central America in tension or tur- 
moil; that he has repeatedly and flagrantly violated 
the provisions of the convention, and by a baleful 
influence upon Honduras whose neutrality the con- 
vention were to assure has sought to discredit those 
sacred international obligations. 

Scarcely more conciliatory is the language 
used by the majority of the Senate Com- 
mittee on Foreign Relations in reporting 
"the peace treaty" : 

We have heard it frequently said that the United 
States "must" do this and do that in regard to this 
league of nations and the terms of the German 
peace. There is no "must" about it. "Must" is not 
a word to be used by foreign nations or domestic 
officials to the American People or other representa- 
tives. 

One may doubt whether "must" was used 
by any "foreign nation," but the Committee 
resents it. Yet the Committee itself commits 
the offence in the same paragraph when the 
report continues : 

The other nations will take us on our own terms, 
for without us their league is a wreck and all their 
gains from a victorious peace are imperilled. 



224 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

This means, "Accept our terms or lose all the 
fruits of the dearly-bought victory which 
Europe and America have both given so 
much to win." If Lloyd George or Clemen- 
ceau, adopting the same tone, had said, 
"America will come into the League on such 
terms as we fix or not at all," what would 
have been the feeling in this country ? 

Whatever we may think of a foreign ruler, 
such language as Mr. Knox's is inexcusable, 
and it is peculiarly cowardly when used by 
the representative of a powerful nation to- 
ward a weak one. Such diplomacy as this 
would soon leave us without a single friend. 
"The power of manners is incessant — an 
element as unconcealable as fire," says Emer- 
son. "No man can resist their influence." 

As an extraordinary and wholly unneces- 
sary piece of rudeness, let me call your atten- 
tion to the refusal of the assembled statesmen 
to recognize racial equality in the Treaty of 
Versailles, when Japan requested such recog- 
nition. That great nations like Japan, which 



RECOGNIZING RACIAL EQUALITY 225 

prevailed in war against Russia, and China 
with its uncounted millions of people, must 
be recognized by other nations as equal in the 
view of international law cannot be denied. 
No useful consequence could follow from in- 
sulting them, while the insult certainly laid 
the seeds of future hostility. One can only 
fall back upon Puck's exclamation, "What 
fools these mortals be." Why will they close 
their eyes to the folly of rating men by the 
color of their skin } 

If each nation would cultivate friendship 
with every other, remember and rejoice in the 
other's brilliant achievements and great 
powers, and, if occasion for criticism comes, 
think first of its own shortcomings before 
criticizing, if in a word we all recognized our 
common humanity and were to each other's 
faults "a little blind," peace would soon be 
well-nigh established. Every private citizen 
in his daily conversation should discourage 
attacks on other countries and frown upon 
those who insist that we won the war, or 



226 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

relate stones to the discredit of Englishmen, 
Frenchmen, or Italians, stories which have 
almost certainly been exaggerated or changed 
as they passed from mouth to mouth. By so 
doing he will help the cause of peace. The 
test is easy. Whatever he would not like to 
have a foreigner say of us, he can be sure that 
the foreigner will resent if said of his 
countrymen. Idle gossip among private 
citizens tends to create a feeling of hostility 
which at a crisis may force the hand of a 
government. Let us all try to think of other 
people as our friends and not as enemies who 
are planning against us. Let us, in any 
event, try to make them our friends by treat- 
ing them with courtesy and not speaking ill 
of them to their faces. 

The cultivation of friendship with other 
nations by word and act is the imperative 
duty of us all, but unhappily the speech of 
men is not to be controlled, and we need 
some stronger barrier against future war 
than kindly feeling. Men's memories are 



FRIENDSHIP AMONG NATIONS 227 

short, but we cannot have forgotten in a year 
the resolve which we all made while the war 
was raging. We tried to reconcile ourselves 
to the carnage by the thought that this would 
be the last war and that the young men who 
laid down their lives were dying for an object 
worthy of the sacrifice, and that object was 
lasting peace. We repeated the words of 
Lincoln, and again and again declared our 
determination that "these men shall not have 
died in vain." We cannot have forgotten this 
high resolve so soon. Yet the headlines in 
the newspapers already speak of the coming 
war in the Pacific. 

Assuming that we do not take counsel of 
despair, but are willing at least to try, it is 
conceded by all that the only way to prevent 
future war is by a combination of the nations 
against it, an alliance so formidable that no 
nation will dare to challenge its power. This 
means an agreement by every nation with 
every other that it will not resort to war for 
any cause, and an agreement by all the 



228 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

nations with each other that their united 
force shall be used against any nation which 
breaks its pledge. This is the same compact 
among peoples to preserve the world peace 
that exists among the people of a city or state 
to preserve its peace. The criminal knows 
that the whole power of the state is behind 
the policeman, and the nation that would 
make war must feel that to do so is to face 
the world in arms. 

A discussion of the pending treaty is not 
consistent with the plan of these lectures, so 
whatever my opinion, it will not be expressed 
here. That it is imperfect, that it is possible 
to imagine dangers and difficulties which 
might arise under it, is only to say that it 
was drawn by human beings, but whatever 
the faults which experience may disclose, 
they can be amended as that experience may 
suggest. If, however, it is absolutely bad 
and not to be accepted at all, its object still 
remains to be accomplished, and the leaders 
who oppose it agree with its friends in de- 



A LEAGUE TO PREVENT WAR 229 

siring some league of nations against war, 
though as yet they have not disclosed what 
league they would recommend. That we are 
not without obligations to our late associates 
in the war is recognized clearly by Senator 
Lodge, who, on December 21, 1918, said: 

We must do our share to carry out the peace as 
we have done our share to win the war, of which 
the peace is an integral part. We must do our share 
in the occupation of German territory which will be 
held as security for the indemnities to be paid by 
Germany. We cannot escape doing our part in aid- 
ing the peoples to whom we have helped to give 
freedom and independence in establishing them- 
selves with ordered governments, for in no other way 
can we erect the barriers which are essential to pre- 
vent another outbreak by Germany upon the world. 
We cannot leave the Jugo-Slavs, the Czecho-Slovaks 
and the Poles, the Lithuanians and the other states 
which we hope to see formed and marching upon 
the path of progress and development, unaided and 
alone. 

The necessity confronts us all, and we 
must all use all the influence we have to see 
that a proper treaty is made. Let those who 
object to this treaty and criticize its provi- 



230 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

sions devote themselves to construction, and 
let us assure them that we stand ready to aid 
them in securing the union of the world 
against war. Men are mortal, and any 
scheme may work imperfectly in practice, 
but there is no possible failure so bad as the 
failure to try, the admission that wars which 
must destroy all that has been gained by the 
civilization of centuries are inevitable, and 
that we must give ourselves up to prepara- 
tion for them at an expense which is scarcely 
less ruinous than war itself. The object of 
our international policy must be world peace, 
and whether in public office or private life 
we must all labor to secure it. 

We, who have been the leaders in the 
movement for a league of nations, and 
whose public men have been prominent in 
the League to Enforce Peace, may at all 
events set an example to other countries by 
not ourselves resorting to war. There are 
now among us two bodies of men, who, with 
all the horrors of war fresh in our memories. 



IRISH AGITATION IN AMERICA 231 

would embroil us with our nearest neigh- 
bors. Certain Irishmen, citizens of a foreign 
country, joined by our own citizens of Irish 
descent, are conducting on our soil a cam- 
paign for Irish independence to be carried on 
with money raised from Americans, as I have 
pointed out in a previous lecture. The Presi- 
dent of the Irish Republic, whose name 
would not identify him with Ireland, is 
governing his domain from hotels and sleep- 
ing-cars in this country, and receives a con- 
sideration from state and city officials here 
which cannot fail to irritate Englishmen. 

To what does this all tend.? It is impos- 
sible to imagine a greater calamity to the 
world than a war between the United States 
and the British Empire. Standing together 
they go far to insure the civilization of the 
world. Let them engage in war and every 
German, every foe of either, would rejoice. 
Use your minds and consider what horrors 
would attend the course of such a war, where 
the combatants would be left when it ended, 



232 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

no matter which was victor, and what the 
hopeless division of EngHsh-speaking people 
would mean to the world. Consider that 
Ireland contains only some four million 
people, that they are hopelessly divided, that 
they are now more prosperous than any 
country in Europe, and consider also what 
capacity they have shown for governing 
themselves or any other people economically 
and wisely. Then say whether there is any 
justification for tolerating an agitation 
which contemplates war between hundreds 
of millions of men, the most civilized in the 
world. It cannot succeed in its object, but 
it will breed hostility and distrust where we 
should have friendship and mutual confi- 
dence. Irish agitation underlies now the 
opposition to the Peace Treaty and keeps our 
country at war with Germany. It may post- 
pone world peace indefinitely, and for every 
reason the United States should frown upon 
it. 

This agitation threatens our peace on the 



INTERFERENCE IN MEXICO 233 

north. Another body of citizens seeks to 
embroil us in the south. Mexico is the 
frontier of Latin America as France is the 
frontier of civiUzation in Europe, and all the 
peoples of Central and South America are 
watching our course in dealing with her. She 
has been passing through a revolution, which 
was needed to break up the enormous hold- 
ings of land and also to do away with other 
abuses which had grown up under the ad- 
ministration of Diaz and his predecessors. 
During the struggle and the conflicts between 
different leaders there has been much dis- 
order, much loss of life, and much destruc- 
tion of property, as there is in every civil war. 
Mexico in this respect is simply following the 
example of all countries, for they have 
reached stable conditions through contests 
which not infrequently have reached the 
dimensions of civil war. I need only remind 
you of the wars between the English and 
Scotch, the Wars of the Roses, the revo- 
'ution in England, and the long religious 



234 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

contests in France with its great revolution, 
to say nothing of later struggles like those 
which followed the Franco-Prussian War, 
our own revolution and our civil war, and 
all that is now going on in Russia and else- 
where in Europe, to satisfy you that Mexico 
is in no way peculiar. 

Now a government has been established 
which has been recognized by the United 
States and by other countries as the govern- 
ment of Mexico. Order has been restored, 
though there are here and there conflicts with 
bandits. The relations between the Church 
and the State which have been disturbed are 
re-established, and conditions are growing 
better every year. 

But there are certain Americans interested 
in oil properties in Mexico, notably William 
Randolph Hearst, who are conducting a pro- 
paganda in favor of intervention in Mexico. 
Even Mr. Taft, president of the league 
formed to prevent war by insisting on pre- 
liminary arbitration, talks of Mexico as a 



INTERFERENCE IN MEXICO 235 

nuisance which should be cleaned up. 
Americans have acquired property in Mexico 
and are making money out of it. They wish 
to make more. They have not thrown in 
their lot with Mexico, they have not become 
Mexican citizens, they are not taking their 
part as such in the attempt to govern the 
country from which they are taking their 
money, but they want us to intervene and 
smooth their financial path by becoming the 
rulers of the country and governing it in the 
interest of themselves and perhaps of other 
foreigners. They claim that civilization needs 
the resources of Mexico and that they are 
civilization's agents in developing and ap- 
propriating them. They perhaps do not put 
their case exactly in this way. They say more 
crudely that Americans are being killed in 
Mexico and that American property rights 
are not respected, and that America must 
overthrow the Government of Mexico. They 
do not lay before us a statement of their 
properties, how they were acquired, what 



236 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

returns they are yielding, and what the 
Mexican Government is doing to injure 
them. They dwell more on the killing of 
Americans. For example, the headlines the 
other day in large type said, "Two Americans 
found dead, killed by bandits. Mr. Lansing 
demands justice." 

Much might be said in support of the con- 
tention that the resources of a country belong 
to its inhabitants, and that if foreigners elect 
to acquire property or engage in business 
there they must not ask their fellow- 
countrymen to make war in order to help 
their business. Mr. Kent, a member of 
Congress from California, said some years 
ago in substance this : "I have large interests 
in Mexico which suffer from conditions there, 
but I don't mean to go down and fight for 
them, or let my son go down and fight for 
them ; and if I don't propose to fight for my 
own property, I have no right to ask other 
people to send their sons to fight for me." 

Let us look at the situation practically. As 



AMERICANS KILLED IN MEXICO 237 

to the killing of Americans, the most recent 
statement that I have seen was in substance 
that in ten years, including years under 
Madero and Huerta, counting men who are 
missing as killed, some five hundred Ameri- 
cans have been killed in Mexico. Some 171 
of these lost their lives when we attacked 
Vera Cruz during our warlike operations 
there. How the rest were killed, who killed 
them, and in what circumstances is not 
stated. They were not killed by the Mexican 
Government in pursuance of a hostile policy, 
but lost their lives during the disturbances 
when thousands of Mexicans lost theirs. 
Whether they killed any Mexicans before the 
end came is not clear. The very numbers are 
in doubt. Do such conditions justify war? 
Every morning paper tells us of murders 
committed in Boston, New York, and other 
large cities. Clerks are held up in stores by 
robbers who shoot and escape. Bandits enter 
a bank, rob it at the point of revolvers, 
and make off with their booty. The officers 



238 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

of justice sometimes catch the criminals, but 
more often they do not. Yet ours is a 
civilized and highly organized community. 
Can we go to war with Mexico because the 
Mexican Government cannot prevent crimes 
or catch the criminals f 

In many states citizens are lynched, 
burned to death with hideous barbarities, and 
not even an attempt is made to stop these 
crimes or punish the lynchers. During 
eighteen years there have been 1427 lynch- 
ings, during 1918 there were sixty-seven 
recorded, and still the number increases. 
Nor do these include the persons killed in 
riots in Washington, Chicago, Omaha, and 
elsewhere. Have we no beam in our own 
eye } The men lynched were American citi- 
zens, living under the protection of our flag 
in peaceful communities. If we cannot 
protect them or even try to punish their 
murderers, what is our right against Mexico ? 

Mexico is a small country. Her popula- 
tion is about 15,000,000, against our 



THE COST OF INTERVENTION 239 

100,000,000 or more. Her resources are 
slight and ours are limitless. We can con- 
quer as surely as a prize-fighter can whip a 
boy. Could we be proud, of such a victory .? 

It is conceded that the attempt would 
unite the factions of Mexico in defence of 
their country. It is estimated that it would 
take some 400,000 or 500,000 men and some 
years to complete the conquest. We can draw 
some inferences from General Pershing's 
attempt to capture Villa — the commander of 
our army in France with an adequate force 
and no resistance against a fleeing bandit 
with a handful of followers. A speaker who 
is advocating action against the Mexican 
Government and is the counsel of the oil 
interests said the other day that 97 per cent, 
of the Mexicans are excellent and peaceful 
people. Why should we kill these people who 
had no more to do with the death of Ameri- 
cans than our own soldiers ? How should we 
profit the Americans who are gone by send- 
ing thousands more Americans to die on the 



240 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

deserts and in the wild places of Mexico, 
leaving behind them desolate homes, be- 
reaved wives, and orphaned children ? If we 
are thinking of property, put into one scale 
the entire damage done to American 
property in Mexico and in the other the cost 
of a war waged only for a few months. Add 
to it the pension list and tell me which scale 
tips the beam. 

Suppose we have won the victory and 
Mexico lies prostrate at our feet. How shall 
we govern it.? Shall we add to our negro 
problem, our labor problem, our Philippine 
problem, a Mexican problem, aggravated as 
it will be by the hostility of all Latin 
America, which will see in this country the 
Prussia of the Western Hemisphere, an 
aggressive power to be watched and dis- 
trusted .f* Shall we make a territory of 
Mexico to be divided into states and ad- 
mitted before they are ready, because one or 
the other political party needs senators.? 
Shall we wait with sickening anxiety till 



SETTLING BY NEGOTIATION 241 

some Presidential election is determined by 
the returns from Chihuahua? Can the 
humanity, the wisdom, the Christianity of 
this great country devise no better method 
of dealing with a weak neighbor than such a 
war? I will not believe it. 

If, instead of insolent and irritating dis- 
patches sent by our Secretary of State, we 
were to appoint a commission, not of politi- 
cians in need of a salary, but of such men as 
we should trust in large affairs, men of 
character and proved ability, let them in- 
vestigate all the charges against Mexico, 
make a temperate statement of our case, and 
then negotiate with the Mexican Govern- 
ment for a settlement : such considerate and 
courteous treatment would in all probability 
produce good results far more speedily than 
any intervention could secure, and at far 
less cost in every way. We should at least 
know then what the case really is, and if 
negotiation failed, arbitration would re- 
main. Not till all these methods of peaceful 



242 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

settlement have been tried should war be 
thought of. 

It is amazing and interesting to see how 
the newspaper charges against a foreign 
nation, nay more, the charges which govern- 
ments themselves present, shrink when put 
to the test of judicial investigation. 

Some years ago the Honorable Wayne 
MacVeagh, former Attorney-General of the 
United States, in an argument for Venezuela 
stated the facts in regard to the claims which 
had been presented to arbitration commis- 
sions for allowance. He dealt with the years 
between 1868 and 1892, and with the claims 
presented to commissions by Great Britain, 
the United States, France, Spain, Mexico, 
and Chili, countries, as he stated, which were 
fairly representative of the civilized nations. 
The figures are very striking. To the Com- 
mission constituted July 4, 1868, to settle 
the claims presented by the United States 
against Mexico, and Mexico against the 
United States, the United States presented 



INTERNATIONAL CLAIMS 243 

claims for $470,126,613.40, and the total 
amount awarded was $4,125,622.20, a little 
less than nine-tenths of one per cent. Mexi- 
co presented claims for $86,661,891.15 (the 
cents in each case showing the extraordinary 
accuracy with which the figures were 
made up), and the amount allowed was 
$150,498.41, about sixteen-hundredths of 
one per cent. 

By the Commission appointed on the 
8th of May, 1871, certain claims growing 
out of the Civil War were considered. Great 
Britain presented claims against the United 
States amounting to $96,000,000, and the 
amount awarded was $1,929,819, about two 
per cent. Claims presented by the United 
States against Great Britain amounted to 
$1,000,000, on which not one cent was 
allowed. 

Before another Commission Spain pre- 
sented claims amounting to $30,313,581.32, 
and the amount awarded was $1,293,450.55, 
about 4 per cent. To a Joint Commission to 



244 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

settle claims between France and the United 
States, France presented claims amounting 
to $17,368,151.27, and received an allow- 
ance of $625,566.35, the percentage of allow- 
ance being thirty-six-hundredths of one per 
cent. The United States presented claims 
against France amounting to $2,747,544.99, 
and the amount allowed was $13,659.14, an 
allowance of about fifty-six-thousandths of 
one per cent. Taking all the commissions 
together, the total amount presented was 
over $719,000,000, and the total allowance 
was less than $8,500,000. 

Had it not been for arbitration it is prob- 
able that these great countries would have 
gone to war to collect the preposterous 
claims of their citizens, and well did Mr. 
MacVeagh say, "You sow military force 
against a weak and defenceless state and you 
reap injustice." With these figures before 
us, does it not become us to move slowly and 
be sure of our ground in international con- 
troversy? The fable of the wolf and the 



THE MONROE DOCTRINE 245 

lamb is not without its application to such 
cases. 

The opponents of the Peace Treaty have 
laid especial emphasis on the necessity of 
preserving the Monroe Doctrine. It is in- 
teresting in this connection to observe that 
San Salvador, in order to decide what she is 
doing if she becomes a party to the League 
of Nations, asks us to define the Monroe 
Doctrine. It is a simple and natural 
request, but what is the answer.'* In its 
original form, to quote President Monroe's 
message in 1823, but leaving out unneces- 
sary words, it was that "the American con- 
tinents . . . are henceforth not to be con- 
sidered as subjects for future colonization by 
any European power" ; that "we should con- 
sider any attempt on their part to extend 
their system to any portion of this 
hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and 
safety"; and that "we could not view any 
interposition for the purpose of oppressing 
them or controlling in any other manner 



246 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

their destiny by any European power in any 
other light than as the manifestation of an 
unfriendly disposition towards the United 
States." This declaration at the time was 
intended to prevent the Holy Alliance from 
interfering in South America to overthrow 
the recently established South American 
Republics, and it was, if not suggested by 
George Canning, certainly made with his 
approval. It was not intended to question 
in any way the rights of Great Britain in 
this hemisphere. 

Daniel Webster in his speech defending it 
put the Monroe Doctrine on the true ground, 
the right of self-defence, and his successor, 
Mr. Root, described it "as a declaration 
based on the right of the people of the 
United States to protect itself as a nation 
and which could not be transformed into a 
declaration, joint or common, to all the 
nations of America, or even to a limited 
number of them." We recognized that the 
establishment of monarchies in this hemi- 



ABUSE OF MONROE DOCTRINE 247 

sphere supported by European powers 
meant eventual attack upon us, for it was 
the policy of the Holy Alliance to destroy 
democracy. It was, in a word, erecting a 
shield against European aggression. 

No one for a moment suggested that it 
was designed to protect our own aggression 
on our weaker American neighbors. It has 
been woefully distorted from its original 
purpose in recent years, until our practice 
justifies the suggestion of President Lowell 
that it is set up as a fence against foreign 
interference with us in our dealings with 
other countries in this hemisphere. It is a 
shield against Europe, but a sword against 
America, and in practice we stand toward 
Mexico and the countries south of us as 
Prussia stood in Europe. 

Let me quote high authority for this state- 
ment. Professor Borchard, an expert on 
international law, a professor in the Yale 
Law School, at one time Assistant Solicitor 
of the State Department, and who has filled 



248 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

other public positions of importance, made 
this statement at a National Conference on 
the Foreign Relations of the United States : 

We must frankly recognize that the rights of 
small states and of government by consent of the 
governed, of which we have recently heard so much, 
have never been a consideration or factor in our 
Caribbean policy, nor has the social regeneration 
of a backward people, who constitute the bulk of the 
population, yet had any tangible manifestations. 

Many of these products, particularly sugar, 
bananas, and oil, or enterprises like railroads, can 
be profitably exploited only by vast corporations, 
who control by concession or otherwise large areas 
of land, transportation systems, both rail and water, 
and an immense supply of cheap labor. Such com- 
mercial control of the sole or principal natural re- 
sources of a weak country leads easily to political 
control of the functions of government, which the 
United States has not been slow to recognize. It 
is only a short step from private investment in a 
railroad or in a large concession for the exploitation 
of a weak country's important resources to the exer- 
cise of a sphere of influence by the home govern- 
ment of the investor; and the sphere of influence 
easily merges into political control. . . . The danger 
of a foreign investment becoming political and 



ECONOMIC IMPERIALISM 249 

bringing about international complications has led 
the United States, in certain countries where our 
interests would be seriously affected, to seek to 
control the amount of debt those countries may con- 
tract and the character of concessions they may 
grant to foreigners. . . . 

It is not generally known that many foreign con- 
cessions in Central America or the Caribbean are 
first submitted unofficially to the State Department 
to avoid subsequent interference on the ground of 
infringement of our political prerogatives, or — in our 
character of trustees for our weaker neighbors — 
because they take unfair advantage of an exploited 
country. . . . 

Our Interposition in the matter has in each case 
been occasioned by some special circumstance or 
opportunity which required prompt action and 
which was then extended to include the larger aims 
which have remained fundamental principles of our 
Caribbean policy. The maintenance of the Monroe 
Doctrine was only an incidental motive of our inter- 
vention in Santo Domingo, Nicaragua, and Haiti. 
Common prudence and the promotion of our own 
interests and those of our weaker neighbors would 
have prompted the same course. . . . 

In closing, it should be frankly admitted that the 
policy on which we have so successfully embarked 
is economic imperialism. We must be prepared, in 
supporting it, to encounter the dangers and risks 
involved. 



250 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

There is a certain naive impudence in speak- 
ing of us as "trustees for our weaker neigh- 
bors." Heaven save us all from such 
trustees ! We may well fear that the United 
States will follow too closely the rules laid 
down by a distinguished trustee in Boston 
who said that there were three things which 
a trustee should never lose sight of — first, 
the safety of the trustee; second, the con- 
venience of the trustee ; and third, the com- 
pensation of the trustee. 

I need only allude to our interference 
against the United States of Colombia when 
the President sent our troops and ships to 
support the new Republic of Panama, to the 
fact that the Government of Nicaragua is 
upheld by our bayonets, that we have over- 
thrown the Republics of Haiti and Santo 
Domingo and govern both by military 
officers, to indicate how very practically our 
policy is carried out, and to show how well 
within the fact is Professor Borchard's 
statement. 



OUR ACTION IN NICARAGUA 251 

As to our course in Nicaragua, let me 

quote the words of a Republican Senator : 

Our brutally taking possession of Nicaragua, 
actually carrying on war, killing hundreds of her 
people, taking possession of her capital and forcing 
through a treaty greatly to our advantage and still 
holding the capital under the control of our marines 
while doing so is one of the most shameless things 
in the history of our country. When this matter 
began four or five years ago under President Taft, 
I did the best I could to stop it. When this admin- 
istration came into power, after first renouncing all 
dollar diplomacy it shortly thereafter sent in prac- 
tically the same treaty, indeed in substance the very 
same treaty. But we went into Nicaragua without 
any justification and without authority upon the 
part of Congress and carried on war In Nicaragua as 
thoroughly and effectively as we carried on a war 
in Mexico in 1848 and even with less conscience 
behind it. 

The Senate of the United States is very 
much exercised lest the Peace Treaty should 
weaken the power of Congress to declare 
war, and is afraid that under its provisions 
the President might send Americans to 
Hedjaz without any action by Congress. One 
cannot but wonder that men so solicitous to 



252 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

maintain the Constitution should have 
allowed to pass unchallenged the attack on 
Vera Cruz, the intervention in Nicaragua, 
the attacks on Haiti and Santo Domingo, all 
without authority from Congress. Every 
one of these acts was an exercise of power by 
the President in violation of the Constitu- 
tion. Our whole dealing with Mexico and 
the Central American States is an entire 
departure from the rules which we ourselves 
proclaim, and the facts are concealed from 
the American people. No newspaper tells us 
what has been or is going on in Haiti or 
Nicaragua, and we hug the comfortable 
delusion that the great principles of our 
Government are respected by our statesmen. 
President Wilson has said: 

No nation should seek to extend its policy over 
any other nation or people, but that every people 
should be left free to determine its own policy, its 
own way of development, unhindered, unthreatened, 
unafraid, the little along with the great and power- 
ful. 

We shall fight for the things which we have 



OUR PROFESSIONS AND OUR ACTS 253 

always carried nearest our hearts — for democracy, 
for the right of those who submit to authority to 
have a voice in their own governments, for the 
rights and Hberties of small nations, the privilege 
of men everywhere to choose their way of life and 
of obedience. 

Mr. Root's words are : 

We consider that the independence and equal 
rights of the smallest and weakest members of the 
family of nations deserve as much respect as those 
of the great empires. We pretend to no right, privi- 
lege, or power that we do not freely concede to each 
one of the American republics. 

As Mr. Lowell said of England: 

"Ole Uncle S. sez he, 'I guess, 
John preaches wal,' sez he." 

Contrast these statements of our policy 
with Professor Borchard's statement of our 
practice, and you will not wonder that San 
Salvador asks to have the Monroe Doctrine 
defined. 

This is a situation which demands the 
1 attention of every conscientious American. 
We must hold our country up to its own 



254 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

principles and must for our own sake resist 
the attempt of commercial interests to make 
our Government their tool in their attempts 
to exploit our neighbors. Every step that we 
take in such work may make millions for a 
few men, but it makes suspicion, hatred, and 
loss for our country. There is no escape 
from retribution, which may come soon or 
late, but will come. We shall do well to 
remember the words of Lowell, "Moral 
supremacy is the only one which leaves 
monuments and not ruins behind it." 

In the same way our dealings with China 
and Japan are insolent. At the behest of 
so-called Labor, a name which is fast losing 
its meaning, we exclude their citizens from 
our country, and those that we cannot ex- 
clude we treat with contempt. Yet we should 
hotly resent it were Americans so treated in 
Japan. The newspapers talk of the "next 
war" in the Pacific and of the "yellow peril." 
We cultivate enmity, not friendship, and to 
what end? 



LOSS OF PRESTIGE SINCE 1918 255 

A year ago the United States was the great 
power to which the world looked for help 
and guidance. The peoples of Europe were 
our warm friends. Our young men had 
fought side by side with youths from almost 
every country save those which were allied 
against us; they had mingled their blood 
with French, English, Italian blood and 
many another stream, and we all rejoiced in 
the victory which all had helped to win. 

Now we are selfishly withdrawing from 
doing our share in defending the fruits of 
that victory, and in the reconstruction and 
regeneration of the world. From man to 
man fly criticisms and suspicions of all who 
fought with us, extravagant claims of our 
own share in the success and sneers at the 
claims of others. We are jealous of other 
nations, and jealous even of each other. It 
may be an inevitable reaction from the un- 
selfish sacrifices which the war entailed, but 
it should cease. We should all discourage 
criticism and complaint. We should praise 



256 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

our allies and they in turn will praise us. 
Should we now become involved in war, 
where should we turn for friends? Name 
any nation you please, and then ask your- 
selves how we are treating that nation, and 
whether we can fairly count on its friend- 
ship ? 

"He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to 
spare, 
And he who has one enemy will meet him every- 
where." 

Entangling alliances may be bad, but en- 
tangling hostilities are far worse. 

A black poet from Jamaica has written 
some lines which we may do well to remem- 
ber when we would misuse our power : 

"God gave you power to build and help, lift. 
But you proved prone to persecute and slay, 
And from the high and noble course to drift 
Into the darkness from the light of day. 
He gave you law and order, strength of will 
The lesser peoples of the world to lead; 
You chose to break and crush them through life's 

mill 
And for your earthly gains to make them bleed; 



DANGERS OF A SELFISH POLICY 257 

Because you have proved unworthy of your trust 
God — ^He shall humble you into the dust." 

Even the British Empire, the mistress of 
the seas, with her wide "dominion over palm 
and pine," realized five years ago, when her 
vast merchant marine was melting under the 
attacks of submarines, when Ludendorff had 
broken her lines and the fate of civilization 
hung in the balance, how near she was to 
finding that Kipling wrote truly: 

"Far-call'd our navies melt away, 
On dune and headland sinks the fire. 
So all our pomp of yesterday 
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre." 

Let me beg you young men and the others 
like you, into whose hands must soon pass 
the ability in part to determine the future of 
our country, to remember that our great 
power is held in trust for the benefit of man- 
kind, and that if we abuse it we shall surely 
suffer. There is no text which is truer than 
the stern words, "Be sure thy sins shall find 
thee out," and they apply as well to nations 
as to men. 



258 PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 

And now, in concluding these lectures, let 
me quote to you the appeal of James Russell 
Lowell which cannot be repeated too often : 

What we want is an active class who will insist in 
season and out of season that we shall have a coun- 
try whose greatness is measured not only by its 
square miles, its number of yards woven, of hogs 
packed, of bushels of wheat raised, not only by its 
skill to feed and clothe the body, but also by its 
power to feed and clothe the soul; a country which 
shall be as great morally as it is materially; a 
country whose very name shall not only, as now 
it does, stir us as with the sound of a trumpet, but 
shall call out all that is best within us by offering 
us the radiant image of something better, nobler, 
more enduring than we, of something that shall ful- 
fil our own thwarted aspirations, when we are but 
a handful of forgotten dust in the soil trodden by 
a race, whom we shall have helped to make more 
worthy of their inheritance, than we ourselves had 
the power, I might almost say the means to be. 



THE END 



CAMBRIDGE • MASSACHUSETTS 
U • S • A 



^ncnc 



